The four hour day

Trish Weston floated the idea of a four hour day on Flying Solo. Her point is: Out of the eight official work hours, only four are truly productive. The rest is spent on stuff that doesn’t really add that much value.

I tend to work more efficiently when there is some sort of deadline. Making four hours of each day count is a form of deadline. Whole-day client engagements aside, I try and do everything on my to-do list that is scheduled for that day within four hours. The rest of the time I can then spend consciously on other things like reading and writing.

The saying that work will expand to fill the available time is true indeed! Limiting my work hours forces me to be more focused on doing the things that matter.

Read the articles:
Why I changed to a four hour day
Four lessons learnt from my four hour day

Have a go and let me know how it works out for you!

One comment on “The four hour day”

1. Stilgherrian said:
   

   While there’s plenty of stuff in a working day that doesn’t “add value”, this 4-hour-day option is really only open to people who have a particular kind of creative or managerial role, or those who are paid well above the average wage.

   While I do understand that Eicolab is aimed at those very people, I still think it’s worth remembering that these luxurious work choices are not available to chefs, coal miners, school teachers, soldiers, shopkeepers, plumbers, mothers, bus drivers, systems administrators, nurses — that is, all the people who provide society’s infrastructure so the creatives can swan about being creative.

   
   14 February 2007 at 3:54 pm

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