41 Great Article

Good article. When my Wife & I abandoned the corporate world to run our our web/graphic design agency it was for choices and quality of life. We still work 5 days but not the hours you mentioned. We generally work 9 til 5 but thats it unless we have a pressing deadline on something. We also dont feel guilty about wandering out for a coffee when it suits us etc.

posted at 03:03 am on May 14, 2006 by Damien Buckley

42 European hours

That’s what my co-workers named my working hours in the office. I get in around 10 – 10:30am, never miss the lunch break and get out of the office around 5 – 5:30pm everyday. Any giving day, I work on more than 2-3 projects usually with tight deadlines, trouble shoot numerous projects which have nothing to do with me, give creative directions, answer technical or design related questions, and so far never missed a deadline. Well I’ll roll back little bit…

I used to do crazy hours as well. Yet about three years ago, because of some health treatment I received, I end up going to office little late everyday, and the nature of the medication I took, forced me to leave work and go home on a reasonable time. Somehow I managed to stay on top of everything, and again somehow my productivity level increased :o). I started to find smarter ways to work, get things done faster and more efficiently.

I agree pretty much about what Ryan says. It’s all about the mind set.

posted at 05:18 am on May 15, 2006 by kayhan atamyildiz

43 It works!

I’ve been working 4 days a week for about four years now: this way I can spend a lot of time raising my kids.
My wife works 3 days, so there’s only two days of daycare a week. It really works fine.

Oh and:

It took awhile to see Thursday like it was Friday. What we realized is that Thursdays became very busy, because we had to finish everything for the week that hadn’t been done yet.

My day off is thursday: I can use the fridays to do things that come in on wednesday and thursday. And on the end of wednesday I get the feeling that’s it’s almost weekend: one day off and another day @ work…

posted at 10:58 am on May 15, 2006 by Niek Emmen

44 Done it

Last year I went through a similar situation where I was working five (even six) days a week and still working and having a never ending things to do list. This meant that weekends were either spent catching up on sleep or recovering from working six days a week!!

So after my third bout of migraine, I decided that the best way to sort this out is to go to 4 days a week. I have to say it wasn’t easy. I had to put together a really good reason why I wanted to do this, discuss it with my direct manager, her line manager and the HR at the company. This would mean a cut in money (which I worked out I could afford)and have to get my work done in four days.

After many discussions it was agreed that I could do this, although reviewed every 6 months to make sure its working for both parties. This all started in September. It took about one month to get into the stride. Going away for a three day weekend to Brighton and Hastings helped.

I now spend Fridays relaxing ready to see friends on Saturday and Sunday. I can get up late, put coffee on, ring my friends who are stay at home friends and have lunch with them.

Also, I am starting my own webdesign business which means I can work whilst it takes off. So I highly recommend it. Try it. Ask your manager, what have you got to loose.

posted at 11:53 am on May 15, 2006 by Ranjana McLean

45 Parkingson's Law supports your theory

Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. So adding more days to your week won’t help you get it done any faster! I guess there’s a balance to be found there though…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_law

posted at 08:07 pm on May 15, 2006 by Murray Rowan

46 Sharpening the creative pencil

It is comforting to know so many of us face the same challenges.

My first 18 months “out of the gate” I was far too disciplined. Working for yourself sounds like a dream, but with so much to accomplish you can become a terrible boss if left to your own devices! I had worked independently before, and was aware of the pitfalls but stil managed to take too few breaks.

As of January ’06 I am proud to say I’ve found balance and am much more satisfied – and far more creative! As we can all attest – that’s no coincidence. A truly relaxing holiday break, my husband joining the team and a change in priorities helped me reset my priorities and establish (what seemed like) counterintuitive goals. Now we plan non-work related activities during the work week and make the sojourn to Starbucks a priority. Yes, sometimes with laptops in tow, but the environmental change is always welcome.

Great article – and great to see so many with similar experiences! Hopefully we’ll be able to enact the 3-day weekend around here later this year.

posted at 01:53 am on May 16, 2006 by franki durbin

47 no daily to do lists

Loved the article, I think it is totally reasonable, and your points about improving overall quality of life are well-taken.

One thing I would advise against is daily to do lists. David Allen in Getting Things Done does a great job of explaining why they don’t work. You can’t completely plan your days ahead of time, something is bound to come up to mess up your plans. Then you get off your list and feel frustrated, and have to make new lists. Stay away from the daily to do’s, and pick up Getting Things Done to learn how to manage your tasks, the book is amazing.

posted at 05:02 am on May 16, 2006 by arvind grover

48 idler

Yup, been working 3 or 4 day weeks since I was made redundant 4 years ago. I swore I’d never work 5 days ever again. My wife works a 3 day week and we together we cover child care for all but 2 days a week.

Right now, I’m working from home for 1 day a week too.

I guess you know about The Idler magazine, a great philosophy regarding work and life.

posted at 03:27 pm on May 16, 2006 by Walt Buchan

49 Untitled

now thats the spirit! I was once very ambitious, and accomplished many things, and made lots of extra money and impressed many people… but I soon realized that was just a manifestation of my insecurity, and was ultimately pointless. Through a more “spiritual” progression, I’ve learned my ambition and desires where causing my misery, and i was inflating my ego causing it to be illogical and hypersensitive. Now I focus on minimizing external pressures, simplifying, I spend my time mastering contentment which better counteracts the original problem of insecurity that I was unknowingly trying to alleviate in the first place. The whole point of working is to provide for things we need in order to be happy or content, beyond our normal everyday needs, food, clothing, shelter, etc, everything else is gratuitous and “dead weight”… just ego boosters… which goes back to the source of misery… by spending all of your time working, your defeating the purpose of what you are working for… which is just simply to be happy

posted at 12:19 am on May 17, 2006 by phillip dillon

50 Service Based Companies, and a 4 Day Week.

In most cases, clients expect you to be there Monday through Friday, and at their beck and call during the traditional “business hours”. With my company, we have been working with a system for the past two years that allows us to do both.

In a nutshell, we split the team in half, with half working Monday though Thursday, and the other half working Tuesday through Friday. For our situation it has worked out very well, but then again we’re also a small business too. However clients can contact someone M-F, and someone is there to field their questions. We also run a skeleton crew in the datacenter over the weekend and holidays, but that’s the nature of the beast. However, even that small handfull of employee’s is on a 4 day week as well.

So it is possible, even in a service related business. What we have learned is that when dealing with clients, is to not allow a client to have a single point of contact. Sure, in a given type of company there may be a main point of contact, but make sure the client also has an alternate point of contact as well. See how that plays into it? Whether their primary contact is out of the office on Monday or Friday, the alternate is there on the day that the primary is not.

Granted for myself those 4 days still usually 16-18hours long, but it sure beats what my original schedule was, which was usually at least 6 days a week if not 7.

Excellent article, and it can work for almost any given situation. Granted if you’re not the boss it becomes a challenge to say the least. However, with today’s market and ever-increasing drive to “think outside the box”, employer’s are always looking for ways to improve production. Not all of them bite on the idea of 4 days at 10 hours, with two days only being at half staff, but you never know. Some companies have actually used a combination or altered method, and went to 4 days at 9 hours, and a 4 hour Friday. While it isn’t a 4/3 combination, it is a step in the right direction.

posted at 07:40 pm on May 17, 2006 by Luke Poland