Four Day Weeks

I just spotted an article about four day weeks linked from Kevin Harrington's blog. It is well worth a read. The premise is that your work expands to fill the available time. The consequence being that limiting your time doesn't necessarily limit the amount of work you can do, it just forces you to be more efficient. I particularly like Kevin's point in his response to the article that suggests "I also have a theory that says: most office based people only work 3 hours a day. That usually stirs up reactions as well!". I'm sure it does. It depends what you define as 'working' of course, but I think for genuine productive work, 3 hours out of an 8 hour day is a realistic estimate.

I also think, as the original article suggests, that if you were free from interruptions in the form of instant messages, e-mails, face to face 'quick questions' or meetings, you'd easily be able to accomplish in 3 hours what currently takes an 8 hour working day. Unfortunately most of the time your colleagues interruptions are because they need help with something that is holding them back from doing their jobs effectively. It can be quite hard to put up an effective "Please don't bother me I'm concentrating!" barrier.

I once suggested to my boss that a 4 day week would be a good idea. He said he was quite happy with that idea, for a 20% pay cut. Hmm. Not quite what I had in mind!