This is the rule of the 20% of Google’s founders who are still using the company successfully

It is one of the largest companies in the world, and surely the most ubiquitous in our lives. And yet several of its greatest products were created by spending time on things that looked like they weren’t going to be productive.

We talk about Alphabet, The parent company of Google and its habit is known as the “20 percent rule of the time.”

The proposal is quite simple: It is about anyone, or a team, or a company dividing their work time, so that at least 20% is dedicated to exploring or working on projects that do not promise to pay immediate dividends, but that they could reveal great opportunities in the future.

“We encourage our employees to, in addition to their usual projects, spend 20% of your time working on what you think will be most beneficial to Google“wrote co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 2004, before the company went public.” This allows them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have come about in this way. “

Some of its developments such as Google News or Gmail itself came from there.

Now, it’s fair to wonder if that “20 percent rule” has really survived within Google all these years, and the answer is yes.

However, there has been much speculation over the years as to whether this seemingly unproductive standard still exists. Apparently some engineers referred to it as “120 percent time”, which means that it is something that they carry in addition to the usual workload, not as a replacement for part of it.

This is how the 20% rule works

Be that as it may, it seems that this rule was part of its success, and it is easily applicable. Perhaps point out a specific project that you are working on and that you are not sure is going to work or be financially profitable, but from which you can learn something despite everything.

Most people spend every second of their workday trying to keep up with their calendars and to-do lists: attending meetings, responding to emails, rushing to meet deadlines.

This makes it difficult to set aside time to explore ideas that interest us or learn new skills. And at a time when it is impossible to predict how our jobs and industries will evolve, “expanding our knowledge is what gives us a long-term competitive advantage,” the founders of Google reflected in 2004.