Would You Be More Productive With a 5-Hour Work Day?
Okay, this may sound familiar if you work outside of the home.
You wake up before the crack of dawn, stumble out of bed and head to the bathroom to *SSS, get dressed, grab a cup of coffee and a breakfast bar or a smoothie only to sit in traffic for the next 30-60 minutes.
You get to work at 9:00 am, head to your cubicle or office, turn on your laptop, read and respond to emails then catch up on a bit of the morning news.
After about an hour, you get up to get another cup of coffee either from the pantry or from the downstairs cafeteria and as you head back to your desk you run into a colleague. There you stand and talk about latest industry news, the subject of the afternoon conference call or perhaps the score from the previous night’s game or results from a dancing show.
Back at your desk, you spend the next two hours heads down responding to email messages both business and personal, perhaps returning calls from the previous day’s voicemail. You then begin to think about leaving the office to grab a bite to eat or stay in for that all important conference call at 2…maybe just hitting up the vending machine for a bag of chips and a soda.
Naw, instead you decide to run to the local Wawa or Deli to grab a sandwich and a bottle juice making it back just in time to pickup your printouts from the copier room then dialing into that “all hands” conference call which would have been better served in a group email.
Now the work day is done or is it?
Just because you’re in the office for eight hours doesn’t mean you’re being productive for all of them, even the best of us can probably admit that we actually spend only two to three hours doing actual work. Therefore, it is quite possible that a five hour work day might be better for all of us. Getting to work at 8 and leaving at 1 or flexing in at 9 and leaving at 2 might make us more productive and focused.
Not all professions can implement at 5 hour work day, but those that could would probably have happier employees which would make them more productive. A five-hour workday enforces time management causing workers to prioritize high-value activities.
Just as with a regular 8 hour shift there will be times when you want or need to work an extra-long day. However, when you can leave the office at 1 p.m. to go to a doctor’s appointment or pick your kids up from school, work isn’t separate from life; it’s a better part of it. Having more time to pursue your passions, nurture your relationships and staying active will gives you more energy, emotionally, psychologically and physically.
Chime in: Do you think having more free time in the afternoons to get personal chores and errands done would make you more productive in the office?
Could “living for the weekend” become an obsolete phrase?
*In case you didn’t know SSS means shit, shower and shave!
I agree that we may have hours of totally nothingness but cutting down my work day would mean cutting down my paycheck and I’m not about that. More people than not already living paycheck to paycheck we can’t afford anymore cuts.
Oh no…5 hours of work but no cut in pay definitely.
Except for one job back in the early 1980’s, I worked out of my home office or on the road out of hotel rooms as a pharmaceutical sales rep and manager. On that one job I did see how much time was wasted and how much time a meeting wasted and it seemed in office settings there were always meetings! I like the concept of flex work hours. For the morning people starting their day early and for the night owls starting their work late morning. I think employee and productivity would go up. Like you say not all jobs can lend themselves to this type of schedule.
I understand Haralee as I spend 3 hours on the road everyday just getting to work. I try to work a straight six but oftentimes it’s hard to stay focused for all of them!
Count me in for a 5-hour work day. I am on the road 2 hours every day getting to and from work. I know that I would be more focused, because I would need to get the job done in less time. I would be happier and more productive. I would also welcome teleworking at my company’s off-site location, if it was closer to my home.
I know what you mean, I despise my 3 hour daily commute and would get more done in 5 hours if I could telecommute.