Investment Time

We dedicate 10% of our work time every year to our personal growth and well-being. We call this Investment Time, and it’s one of our longest-standing traditions. On a full-time contract it’s about 165 hours per year.

During Investment Time, we do not work for clients. We don’t even have guidelines or fixed lists of projects to pick from. Instead, we do something that improves our skills, contributes to the community, or simply allows us to disconnect from work and recharge. It’s up to you to decide what you make of it.

Over the years, teammates have used Investment Time to:

• Write a post on their personal blog or our own.
• Contribute to an open source project.
• Read that book that they kept postponing.
• Study a new tool, technology or methodology they were interested in.
• Make progress on their personal learning plan, or take English lessons.
• Learn a second (or third, or fourth!) language.
• Coach a teammate and teach them a new skill.
• Attend a conference, or help a teammate on a project.
• Do yoga to recover from a stressful day, or take a walk in the park.

Finding time for Investment Time

Each teammate is free to organize their schedule however they want to make space for Investment Time. Any arrangement works, as long as urgent client work is given priority.

The most popular approach is to use the first or last hour of the workday, when you are mentally disconnected from client work and can invest yourself fully in what you’re doing. You could also batch entire hours or days of Investment Time, if the project allows for it.

Use your own judgment and manage your schedule accordingly. If in doubt, ask your manager and they’ll figure something out!

Tracking Investment Time

To stay within the 10% budget, track Investment Time on Bob as a “Investment Time 🧠” request. Bob shows your exact budget. Time off explains how these requests differ from other leave.