As I went on a 4-day working week, and what came of it
Work And Study / / December 25, 2019
Anise Purbasari Horton (Anisa Purbasari Horton)
The journalist who writes about personal development and entrepreneurship for Fast Company. Previously he worked at Mashable, The Verge and Business Insider.
At first, four-day workweek seemed like some kind of fantasy. I just had no idea how to finish all the cases. But then I noticed that on Friday I left the problem that with proper self-discipline can be done in advance. I decided to conduct an experiment on Thursday to finish all the current affairs, and devote Friday of profound work on long-term goals.
First week. I make up for, and prioritize
The day before returning to the office after a vacation, I sat down to plan their working week. Then I faced the first obstacle - few working days. It had to halve its goals. I wrote in the diary three mandatory tasks for the day instead of the usual six. In any case, I have added three more points, if I have found on their time. Of course, it was not.
The second obstacle was the bad weather. I had
work from home. I coped with the urgent task before Friday, but it was thrown email. All the same, 99% of my mail only takes time and does not bring any benefit.On Friday, I tried seriously to work: to edit the article, find new ideas and think about how to improve our newsletter. But productivity was at 50%. I'm just not very well work from home.
Second week. sick
I wanted to vigorously start this week, but on Monday night felt symptoms flu. For two days I could not even do anything, Thursday listlessly worked from home and in the office came only on Friday.
Again it was necessary to make up for lost time. Surprisingly, I coped with all current affairs. While some long-term projects aside, well, once again failed to parse all the mail.
The third week. I am trying to catch everything in two days
Another shortened week. On Monday, we did not work because it was Martin Luther King Day. On Thursday and Friday I took a day off to celebrate a wedding anniversary. Had two days to do the job, which usually takes five days.
By this time I had already determined what kind of things take up the most time. I was doing them in the first place. Mail sorting out as far as possible and tried to remove as many letters as possible. In the end, I completed all the current affairs and even flunked time.
The fourth week. Finally, the success of
It was the last week of my experiment. On Sunday evening, I began to doubt whether it is worth it to continue. Everything was not so bad, but I did not achieve its goal - to do more of profound work. I decided not to stop.
Over the last week I made more than the previous three. Although I have additional responsibilities suddenly appeared, I still had time. On Friday morning finishing touches current affairs, and then go about their serious projects. I noticed that I changed habits. I began to make lists, depending on the importance of the task, not on the urgency. Introduced short breaks to idleness, during which read Twitter.
I'm more likely to experience stress, but found a more efficient working methods.
My conclusions
I still have conflicting impressions. On the one hand, I felt a greater stress. Often unforeseen cases, scheduled tasks had to endure. As a result, I have to work longer in order to catch everything. There were days when I was very tired and angry, you need to cancel plans for the evening.
On the other hand, it made me think about my habits. I started a stricter attitude to planning. Now, Sunday night I ponder the progress over the past week, and make plans for the next. I also never leave work, not amounting to do list for tomorrow. This helps to honestly evaluate their work today.
Perhaps my opinion would be different if I was not sick, but at work there would be less load. In the summer we worked on Fridays until two o'clock in the afternoon, and I have not experienced difficulties. I think I will continue draw up a schedule so that on Friday, only to engage in long-term projects. But I will not be upset if you do not have time to finish most of the work on Thursday.