20% Rule: Successful People Spend One Day A Week Just Learning & Experimenting
Michael Simmons
3x 7-Figure Education Entrepreneur / Writing in Fortune, TIME, Forbes, & Harvard Business Review
Over the last few years, I've spent nearly 1,000 hours thinking deeply on, researching, and writing about a simple question that has profound implications...
What percentage of our workweek should we spend on learning and experimentation in order to have a thriving career?
In 5-Hour Rule, I make the case that if you’re not spending five hours per week learning, you’re being irresponsible...
Just as we have minimum recommended dosages of vitamins, steps per day, and minutes of aerobic exercise for maintaining physical health, we need to be rigorous about the minimum dose of deliberate learning that will maintain our economic health. The long-term effects of intellectual complacency are just as insidious as the long-term effects of not exercising, eating well, or sleeping enough. Not learning at least 5 hours per week (the 5-hour rule) is the smoking of the 21st century and this article is the warning label.
More recently, I've been thinking about and researching the optimal dose of weekly learning rather than the minimum.
As I performed this research, I noticed something surprising. Many of the top companies and entrepreneurs in the world have independently found an optimal number that is the same...
Navy Seal Jock Willink, Google, Genentech, 3M, and GaryVee all follow the 20% Rule
They spend 20% of their time on activities on experiments and skill-building.
So, if you work five days per week, that would be one full-day devoted to just learning and experimentation. In other words, a 4-day workweek.
Here are a few of the most interesting case studies I've come across...
1. Google Founders Follows The 20% Rule
Early on, Google created a 20% Rule that gave employees the flexibility to spend 20% of their work time on innovation projects not directly connected to what they're paid for.
Former CEO, Eric Schmidt explains some of the thinking behind the magic "20%" number.
In short, Google believes in the 70/20/10 Rule for learning and innovation...
- 70% of your time should be dedicated to core business tasks.
- 20% of your time should be dedicated to projects related to the core business.
- 10% of time should be dedicated to projects unrelated to the core business
2. 3M Follows A Similar Rule
3M has had an informal 15% Rule for decades. Engineers and scientists can "spend up to 15% of their time pursuing their own projects, free to look for unexpected, unscripted opportunities, for breakthrough innovations," according a Harvard Business Review article.
3. GaryVee Also Follows The 20% Rule
Legendary Internet entrepreneur GaryVee spends 20% of his time on new innovative projects and learning new skills. He credits this approach with a lot of his success.
4. Navy Seal Jocko Willink Makes The Case For The 20% Rule
In a Jogan Rogan podcast episode, Navy SEAL Jocko Willink proposed that police officers, a profession with high-pressure and high-stakes, should spend 20% of their week (1 day a week) training in order to improve.
Explaining his logic, Willink shared that Navy Seals would train 18 months to just go on a 6-month deployment.
5. Genentech, one of the largest companies in the world, follows the 20% Rule
According to a Fortune profile, Genentech "encourages their scientists and engineers to spend fully 20 percent of each workweek pursuing pet projects."
6. 95% of people I surveyed think the 20% Rule would make them more productive
Interested in this 20% Rule, I recently polled members of our Learning How To Learn community. 643 people responded to this question...
If you had a 4-day work-week combined with a 1-day learning-week, do you think your lifetime productivity would increase or decrease?
An amazing 95% of respondents said that they thought that the 4-day workweek would increase their lifetime productivity.
Now It's Time To Ask Yourself These Three Critical Questions
The world is changing rapidly and increasing in complexity. As time goes by, the learning required to have a thriving career is increasing. At the beginning of the 20th century, few Americans even had high school diplomas. Now, having a college education isn't table stakes.
So, it's essential for all of us to ask ourselves three questions...
- What percentage of your workweek should you spend on learning and experimentation?
- Are you living up to that percentage?
- If not, why not?
I'd be curious in your thoughts in the comments.
Specialist - Technology Learning and Development
4 个月Hi Michael Simmons, I'm Samyak from the Engineering Learning & Career Development team at the London Stock Exchange Group. One of my responsibilities is to track learner metrics. I have been tasked with reporting on monthly and quarterly active/engaged learners. Given that I work with engineers in my department and our offerings being optional, what would you suggest is the minimum number of minutes one must learn in order to be tagged as an active/engaged learner? I went through your post and looks like the 20% rule or one day a week is a bit too much for engineers. Any suggestions?
Senior Vice President of Consumer Sales & Regional Publisher at M. Roberts Media
1 年Michael Simmons, I once had a successful banking CEO tell me as part of his hiring process he looked for people willing to spend the equivalent of 30 minutes per evening learning via YouTube, reading etc. instead of watching re-runs on TV. If you were not a serial learner he wanted you to invest in your community at the same clip. For example be a little league coach or help at the soup kitchen. In both instances he felt you where going to help his business grow because of your personal development. Do you believe he should have given this time to them during their work hours, or this outside the work schedule expectation is fair?
Blessed to be a blessing
1 年Michael, thank you for this thoughtful and thought-provoking article. In your opinion, what is the optimal way to split up the 1 day a week of learning? 20% of a standard full-time worker's work week would be eight hours. Would it be best to take this time all in one day? 2hrs 4 days a week? 4hrs 2 days a week? Or some other split?
Project Management | Entrepreneurship | Technology | Innovation | Business Analytics
2 年Hi, I would like to know how you manage "urgent" work requests on your learning day. How do you ensure that your colleagues respect your learning day?
DevOps Specialist at CDW Canada | ServiceNow CAD+CSA | RHCSA | ScienceLogic Professional | 4x AWS Certified: DevOps Pro (highest) | Azure Fundamentals | Python | ITIL | Computer Games Creator
3 年I'm a strong advocate for the 1 hour rule, where I make it a goal to study every day learning tech certifications. In fact, I don't even call it the "1 hour rule" because I trick my mind/body into thinking that I'm only going to study for 15 minutes and then it is much easier to get started that way. Once I get started, then I can study for much longer periods. The "15 minute rule" is the gateway drug that leads towards the "1 hour rule" and then finally, the "20% rule". As a result, I probably put in about 2 hours per day on average. But if I have a day where I can really only put in 15 minutes, then I still achieved my daily goal. I'm fortunate that my work permits enough downtime for me to use it to study on my own, and that's where I'm able to find the spare time to do it. Should employers allow their employees to set aside time during their work day to be able to study 1 hour per day (or in this case 1 entire day per week)? If they want their employees to upgrade to keep up in the ever changing technology sector, it might be something for them to consider.