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#Leadership : I Tried A #FourDayWorkweek For A Month And Ended Up More Stressed… I Learned to Implement some Good Work Habits, but I Felt Very Rushed to Do Everything.

February 8, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When it comes to “solutions” for work-life balance, we’ve been told to do everything from meditating to tracking our time. For the most part, employers have put the burden on employees to figure it out for themselves. However, in recent years, companies have recognized the productivity benefits they can gain from investing in employees’ work-life balance. In addition to corporate wellness programs, some have implemented the four-day workweek.

To me, the idea of a four-day work week seemed more like a fantasy than a plausible reality, mainly because I didn’t see how on earth I’d be able to finish all my work before Friday. But when I was reflecting on how my 2017 went professionally, I realized that I didn’t allocate as much time as I’d like on long-term projects. I wanted that to change in 2018.

I realized that most of the tasks I scrambled to finish on a Friday could be done ahead of time, with a little discipline and ruthless prioritization. So I decided to try and do my own version of a four-day workweek, where I’d try to finish my routine and important/urgent tasks on a Thursday, and keep Fridays for thinking and strategy work. Here’s how it went.

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WEEK ONE: CATCHING UP AND PRIORITIZING

The day before I returned to the office from vacation, I made a conscious effort to spend my afternoon planning out what my week at work was going to look like. I realized that before I even started, I was already facing an obstacle–a short week. I had three days instead of four to do what I usually do across five days (not to mention catching up on things I didn’t quite get to during the last week of December.)

So the first step I did was sliced my goals in half–something I experimented with last year but have struggled to make a habit due to my tendency to overcommit. My new planner, the Full Focus Planner, made it a little easier since it was set up for me to write the three must-complete tasks of the day (rather than six, which I usually write.) However, I also made the mistake of including three extra “do if I have spare time” items, which of course, I never ended up doing.

My second obstacle was the “bomb cyclone” that hit the East Coast that week, forcing me to stay home and work. I did manage to do all my “urgent and important work” before Friday, by choosing to forego the quest of inbox zero–after all, 99% of the emails I receive are mere time-suck and of no productive value. I attempted to commit to a full day of deep work on Friday–editing a story, working on new story ideas, and strategizing how I can improve and grow our newsletters. However, I felt like my productivity level was at 50%. Some people work fine from home, but I’m just always less productive.

WEEK TWO: DERAILED BY UNFORESEEN SICKNESS

I was determined to start week two with a bang, but toward the end of Monday, I started getting flu-like symptoms–which deteriorated into a full-on illness pretty quickly. I was out for two days, worked a not-so-productive day from home on Thursday, and when I was back in the office on Friday, I was–once again, playing catch-up. Surprisingly, while some of my long-term projects fell by the wayside, I did complete all my day-to-day obligations. The thing I let slide again? Achieving inbox zero.

WEEK THREE: ANOTHER SCHEDULED SHORT WEEK

By week three, I was mostly recovered from the flu, but faced a challenge of another short week. Our office was closed that Monday for MLK day. I had a vacation scheduled for that Thursday and Friday to celebrate my wedding anniversary. That left me with…two days to do five days of work.

By this time, I had already figured out what my time-sucking tasks were, so I either did them first in the morning to get it out of the way–or when it came to my inbox, I got through as much as I could and made more use of the “delete” button. Because I wasn’t in the office on Friday, I didn’t have a dedicated “deep work” day that week, but I did finish all my routine tasks and met my deadlines for the stories I was filing.

WEEK FOUR: SUCCESS AT LAST

I realized on Sunday night that week four was my last week of experimenting. I started wondering if it was worth carrying on another week. It hadn’t been a complete failure, but I only achieved my goal of deep-work only once, and that Friday wasn’t the most productive. Then I reminded myself that what I was doing was an experiment and not a goal–it was a strategy I wanted to try using to achieve my objective of doing more deep work.

I actually ended up achieving more in the last week than I did my entire experiment–because I finally had a five-day workweek to work with. I did have extra obligations that week, so I spent the first two hours of my Friday doing routine tasks before I moved on to my meaty projects. I found myself being even more hard-fisted about what I put on my to-do list, only writing down items that were truly important, whether they were urgent or not. I also started implementing procrastination breaks again–when I found myself slipping back into old, sporadic Twitter-checking habits. I might not have had the most successful start to this experiment, but by week four, I felt like I was getting the hang of it.

I WAS MORE STRESSED, BUT I DEVELOPED BETTER WORK HABITS AND PRACTICES

At the end of my experiment, I felt conflicted about the four-day workweek. First, it made me more stressed. Unpredictable work came up, other tasks got pushed to the bottom of my to-do pile, but at some point, they still needed to be done. As a result, I ended up working longer hours to fit everything into my four-day deadline. Some days, that was worth doing, but other days, I just felt exhausted or annoyed that I had to cancel my evening plans.

That being said, my failures forced me to take a closer look at my work habits, and be a lot more rigorous about planning, reflecting, and readjusting my plans when last-minute work comes up. I now dedicate Sunday evenings to reflect on the progress that I made the week before, and use those insights to plan out how I’m going to tackle the upcoming workweek. Also, now I never leave work without writing my to-do list for the next day (which gives me no choice but to look at my progress, or lack of progress), for that day.

THE LIMITATIONS OF A FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK

I have no doubts that a four-day workweek can work for some organizations. But since I work in a field that requires a degree of reactive work, it’s not always easy to plan ahead and cram five days of work in four days.

That said, I might have written a completely different article if I tried it during a time when my workload was light, and when I wasn’t hit with an unexpected illness. When our office tried summer Fridays during the slower month of July and August (we ended the workday at 2 p.m.), I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Going forward, I think I will still plan my week so that I can reserve Friday for deep work, but I’m not going to stress if I don’t finish everything by Thursday.

FastCompany.com | January 8, 2018 | BY ANISA PURBASARI HORTON 6 MINUTE READ

#Strategy : 3 Reasons Why America Is Ready For a 4-Day Workweek…A 4-Day Workweek is Often Met with Differing Reactions From Workers & #Employers.

September 19, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The first thing that springs to mind as a potential byproduct of its implementation is a loss of productivity for businesses, and on the worker’s side, losses in the form of wages and benefits. However, a quick look at other nations with more worker friendly business climates indicate that that might not necessarily be the case.

Workers’ rights groups have been making headlines lately, with lots of pushback from unions and activists regarding issues like the minimum wage and healthcare. There have been some big victories on behalf of workers, such as when Seattle passed a $15 per hour minimum wage (and now San Francisco, as well), a number of wage increases for the lowest earners were passed by voters during the 2014 midterm election, and construction workers were awarded more protections in New York City. With progress slowly being made on behalf of employees across the country and around the world, advocates may soon set their sights on a new goal: establishing a four-day workweek.

Source: Thinkstock

A four-day workweek is often met with differing reactions from workers and employers. The first thing that springs to mind as a potential byproduct of its implementation is a loss of productivity for businesses, and on the worker’s side, losses in the form of wages and benefits. However, a quick look at other nations with more worker friendly business climates indicate that that might not necessarily be the case.

According to CNN, the country whose citizens work the shortest hours on average per week is the Netherlands with 29. Coming in behind it are Denmark and Norway, both averaging 33 hours per week. Despite these low figures, all three of these countries’ citizens have an average annual income landing somewhere in the mid-$40,000 range. For comparison, the median annual income in the U.S. is around $54,000.

These countries also dominate the rest of the globe when it comes to employee friendly labor laws, with mandatory vacation days for both full- and part-time workers, extensive maternity and paternity leave, and flexible schedules being commonplace.

In the United States, big industries have led large lobbying campaigns to keep the rights of workers to a minimum in order to maximize productivity while minimizing labor costs. Big business has also engaged in campaigns to dismantle unions and fight against protective labor laws by increasing the use of temporary and contract workers, many of whom don’t qualify for benefits, time off, or employer-sponsored healthcare. Flexible scheduling has been on the rise in some sectors, making life easier for many Americans as the work-life paradigm starts to take a new form. Many tech companies — like Amazon, Facebook, and Google — have made waves for offering employees more flexible schedules, but so far the trend hasn’t become mainstream.

As far as the four-day workweek is concerned, the concept — for many American workers — is still in gestation. As the benefits become more known and the idea permeates, expect to see workers’ rights advocates bring the issue to local representatives. For now, analysts are keeping a watchful eye on northern European countries that are experimenting with it already. If the experiments are successful, as many expect them to be, look for the American push to gain steam.

Is it possible that the United States could duplicate the successes of a stunted workweek? Though it would be extremely difficult from a political and legislative perspective to get the ball rolling, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about it. Here are the top three reasons the implementation of a four-day workweek in the U.S. would be beneficial.

1. Countries That Work Less Are Happier

Source: Thinkstock

When it comes to happiness, no other area in the world tops the charts like northern European and Scandinavian countries. According to data from the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the top five happiest nations in the world are Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Most of these countries have implemented many policies that Americans would probably be quick to associate with socialism, and also have relatively high taxation rates. However, their citizens are happier than any other, and after a quick cross-reference with average hourly workweek data, some very obvious overlap can be found.
As the U.N. states, “the report also shows the major beneficial side-effects of happiness. Happy people live longer, are more productive, earn more, and are also better citizens. Well-being should be developed both for its own sake and for its side-effects.” The U.N. points out that productivity and happiness appear to be linked, and that is something economists and industry leaders should pay close attention to.

It may be obvious that spending less time at work leads to happier employees, but with the U.N.’s data, there is some discernible proof in hard data. Happiness can also be tied to wages and many other factors, such as quality of life and life expectancy. There are plenty of other things in play, but overall, the report shows that worker friendly business atmospheres produce healthier populations.

2. The Economic Data Shows Shorter Workweeks Don’t Hurt

If shorter workweeks are leading to happier citizens who should be more productive, then what exactly does the hard data have to say? A look at the World Bank‘s GDP data shows some interesting trends. For starters, the United States has seen growth for the past five or six years, starting in 2009, right after the financial crisis hit. During that time, many people lost their jobs and wages stagnated or even decreased, possibly leading to a portrait of higher productivity for that time period. As the U.S. economy has recovered, jobs have returned and more people are back to work, but wages have not gone back up, leading to increased inequality, a shrinking middle class, andpoor morale

So worker contentment in the U.S. has shifted downward while productivity has trended up. The Netherlands has not seen a similar story, as the country’s GDP has fluctuated wildly over the past few years. Denmark has seen similar turbulence, although not the extent of the Dutch. Norway, on the other hand, has seen steady growth similar to the United States. All three of these European countries face a vastly different set of challenges than the United States, which could play a factor in the fluctuations.

Taking GDP into account, it’s hard to draw a solid conclusion from data over the past few years. Although it looks like American industry is seeing growth, it is coming at the expense of employee morale and overall happiness of its citizens. Shorter workweeks certainly haven’t tanked any of the leading three countries’ economies.

3. Increased Productivity and Other Savings

Is there a relationship between working longer hours and increasing productivity? Certain data appears to point to the contrary. According to European productivity data compiled by The Guardian, countries like the Netherlands show high productivity numbers, while also posting a low hourly average for workers. These numbers indicate that the happier employees are, and the shorter their average workweek, the more productive they turn out to be. As Uri Friedman of The Atlantic points out, the relationships can be complex, but the underlying point is that more hours spent at work doesn’t always mean productivity will go up.

American data shows a different story. Although productivity has gone up over the past year by 1.4%, it has come with an average increase in hours worked by 3.2%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once again, America is seeing productivity go up, but at a cost of more hours worked.

What other savings might a shorter workweek afford? Employers could save in lost productivity costs as employees would have more time to handle outside responsibilities. Instead of missing time at the office for doctor’s appointments or taking care of their children, employees would have more time and flexibility to focus on those things with an extra weekday off. There will also be a savings on employee’s part with a reduction in costs related to commuting, in the form of public transportation fees or fuel for their vehicles.

The U.S. economy is an entirely different animal from smaller European nations, but as American employers have decided to head one direction with policies relating to employees, countries like the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark have gone the opposite route. What those European nations have been able to do is raise their citizens’ happiness levels while increasing productivity, all while keeping their economies afloat.

An extra free day for American workers could make a huge difference for a large part of the population. While there are definite drawbacks and concerns to take into account, a four-day workweek is something politicians and industry leaders should take a serious look at. Not only could it improve morale and productivity, but also have enormous economic benefit over the long run.

Cheatsheet.com | September 18, 2015 | Sam Becker

http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/3-reasons-to-embrace-a-4-day-workweek.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3mBd8TGjq