20 Time is an exciting project that Google started back in 2004 when it was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their idea for the project was this: that Google employees are given the option to spend 20 percent of their paid work time to work on developing ideas and programs that will benefit the company in addition to working on their regular day-to-day  projects. They believe that the 20 Time will empower Google employees to be creative and intuitive. While not all employees choose to participate, 20 Time has proven to be a great thing for Google in that Gmail. Google News, AdSense, and Google Maps have been some very impactful results of the project.

Google did not decide to take on the 20 Time project purely because it benefited them. Google also encouraged the project because they believed that the best ideas come from free-will and bright minds. It is because of this that the company never forced the project on to any of their employees. The reason that the project has been so successful is due to the fact that the people that decide to work on the project had creative minds, passionate hearts, and are dedicated workers.

My high school literature teacher and faculty members share Google’s beliefs about the 20 Time project and has adapted it to turn it into a class assignment. They believe that teenagers are full of passion and ideas that will cultivate amazing and unexpected projects from the students that attend my school. It is because of this that one out of our five class periods a week has been dedicated to working on our 20 Time projects. This is the reason that I have included this page on my blog, because it is how my project, Easy Equine Fitness, was born.

 

Sources:

D’Onfro, Jillian. “The Truth about Google’s Famous ‘20% Time’ Policy.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 17 Apr. 2015,                                                                                                              http://www.businessinsider.com/google-20-percent-time-policy-2015-4

Robinson, Adam. “Google Employees Dedicate 20 Percent of Their Time to Side Projects. Here’s How It Works.” Inc.com, Inc., 12 Mar. 2018,                                                                           www.inc.com/adam-robinson/google-employees-dedicate-20-percent-of-their-time-to-side-projects-heres-how-it-works.html