How to transform the global COVID-19 crisis into a huge personal opportunity OR your own 20% project

History behind the concept of 20% project

When I joined Google in 2011, I quickly got acquainted with the concept of 20% project. For those of you who are not familiar with it, 20% project is an initiative where employees are allocated 20% of their paid work time to pursue personal ideas, the objective being to inspire innovation in employees and ultimately increase company potential.

As Google grew in size, the opportunity to pursue 20% projects was sunset for most employees and only remained an option for a handful of Engineers.

During its short existence, it has managed to bring amazing unicorn-like products to the world such as Gmail, AdSense and Google News.

And, Google is not the only company that made use of the concept. Other companies include Atlassian (the resulting product is Jira) and TargetProcess.

In fact, the original concept was introduced by corporation 3M after World War II but was only widely popularised by Google decades later.

Crisis = great time for entrepreneurship

One idea I would like to capture in your minds — working from home during COVID-19 is a perfect opportunity for you to start your own 20% project.

I am sure all of you have an idea you have always wanted to pursue, but never had the time for it. May be you wanted to created a mobile app, launch an online shop, start a YouTube blog or write a book etc. Now is the time!

Okay, sounds great, but where do I start? I don’t have 20% of work time to spare.

Productivity is key

The answer is simple and complicated at the same time— invest time into increasing your productivity. In my previous article, I shared some of my best practices on how to stay productive while working from home and, I am sure, you can find many more tips and best practices by completing a simple query on Google Search.

By restructuring your approach to work and freeing up 20% of your work time, you can finally invest time and effort into your idea. That one idea that you gave as an answer to the interview question “what would you do if you never had to work?”. That idea that you decided to leave aside until you earn all the money in the world, retire and finally have some time to do something on your own.

Obviously, watching a little bit of Netflix is a must during social lockdown. But don’t waste all of your time on it. If you do, you will regret it later.

Now is the time

Now is the time! Not tomorrow. Not in a week. But now!

Every crisis is an opportunity, you just need to look at things from a different perspective. Regardless what type of idea you might have, I am happy to answer questions, share experiences and useful resources to make it happen.

Don’t wait to pursue your dream. Do it today. Life is giving you the most valuable resource — time. Structure it wisely and come out a winner.