When people slash their schedules to be more productive, downtime is often the first to go.
But a world that only focused on work-related activities would be one without Gmail and Sticky Notes—both created during what’s known as a FedEx Day.
In 1948 the company 3M gave employees 15% paid free time at work to pursue their ideas, as long as they presented their projects to the company. Cynical manager may see this as a drain of resources used to pay employees to scroll social media, but that’s not the case. Scientist Art Fry in 1974 used his time to create the Post-It note, which impacts the world daily. Today, 3M rakes in more than $20 billion in annual sales and holds over 22,000 patents, many derived from this program.
3M set a precedent for top companies such as Google and HP. Google’s copycat 20 percent time birthed Gmail, Google Earth, and Gmail labs.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Many of these projects have no real application, but the successes far outweigh the losses that teach valuable lessons.
I’ve recently devoured four books about motivation and the future of work: Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, Drive by Daniel H. Pink, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. All echo the idea of giving more autonomy to employees so that they can choose to use their time more productively.
The free time I’m referencing is used to create. While Netflix and Fortnite have their place, pursuing dreams that seem far-fetched are vital for a happy career and a fulfilling life. It doesn’t matter if you’re making music, writing, or learning to code; you’re building skills to produce value for others. When you attack projects within a viable skill set, you are engulfed in your work to try to reach mastery.
Csikszentmihalyi writes from a limited point of view. Thrown in an Italian prison camp as a child, he escaped WWII on a train barraged by bullets. He devoted his life to discover how to live his best life every day, and coined the term flow: a state of mind in which one is entranced in their work. But this isn’t isolated to professional work; he found this in people of all trades, ages, and ethnicities.
This idea may seem like it only applies to hobbies outside of work, but you can incorporate it into your daily work, even if you work for bosses stingier than high-tier tech companies.
Much work is dreary and demanding. If you’re burning out from a career, discover something you love and build that skill. Happiness isn’t restricted to an income bracket. Find a part of your work in which you can fulfill what makes you happy. Drive mentions studies surveying minimum wage hospital workers who only scrubbed floors and bathrooms at night. But they increased their happiness by forming relationships with patients. Money may ease stress levels, but it doesn’t bring happiness; only you can build that.
Mindset builds the foundation of your life. You can bitch about your situation, or you can place yourself in perspective; you’re in the top 1% income bracket of the world if you make $32,400 per year. You won the genetic lottery if you’re in the United States and born in the 20th century, where any information to improve yourself is a click away.
If you’re unhappy with your life, you can change it. Stop doing things you hate, use free time productively, and discover what you love. Remember your days are limited and only the things you create will survive past your death. I’m eternally grateful Art Fry spent his free time chasing dreams that reframed future time management.