Hey friends, Many years ago, 5.5 days work week is the norm. Saturday is a half working day. Companies that offer alternate Saturdays are a godsend. It was even said that anything less will make us lose our competitiveness. Employers who were process focussed took heed. Slowly, that went away and guess what, we did okay. Now the talk is about a 4-days work week. Started as more of a romantic aspiration from the west, there are now local companies that actually adopted them, moving us closer to the prediction of economist John Maynard Keynes that people would work just 15 hours a week in the future. Can this be done? Again, many are sceptical. I think we can. But we need to work smarter. A survey by Asana shows that much of this time is spent on “non-essential things.”
That is defined as “work coordination,” which includes following up on things, searching for information, and communicating about work. I would also include unnecessary meetings, task switching and the unfortunate instinct to reply to emails in real-time. Beyond that, a separate study by Milieu Insight shows at least an hour per day is spent on non-work matters like paper shuffling. So we optimise on time spent and not outcome, which is the opposite of what I witnessed many years ago in a German office. If we can cut away these "frills", squeezing the same thing over 4-days might just be possible.
Have a great week ahead!
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