Shifting To Shorter Work Days

While the four-day work week has been a promising method of giving employees a better work-life balance, staff are still required to work for several hours each work day, which can be fatiguing.

As companies shift to a more distributed workforce, they will need to grapple with the reality that employees need more flexibility in their schedules moving forward. So what about simply shortening the work day instead? 

While leaders might presume that this means less work will get done, there are strategies to make this shift possible without risking productivity levels.

For starters, if you want to work less hours each day, make it clear to colleagues and leaders when you are and aren’t working.

Additionally, cutting down on meetings can help employees, regardless of their work schedule, perform better. For instance, some weekly meetings may be just as productive if conducted biweekly.

If you are “always on” in terms of work-related messages and emails, you risk stretching out your workday longer than necessary. By turning off notifications for portions of the day, you can stay hyper focused on your tasks at hand.

This will require you to have a deeper understanding of your own distractions. If a message in your email leads you to quickly scroll through social media, then you are hurting your own productivity.

Be clear about what you need to work on, and set aside time that is void of any distractions in order to get your work done efficiently. This allows yourself more time to work on more personal tasks without the guilt.