Is Working Four Days A Week Right For You?
For some reason there are only three winning places on the podium… It takes a team of three leading protagonists to tell us epic stories. Three word lineups are more convincing than two.. Is three-day holiday every week better than two? Is working four days a week pragmatic? If you told me two years ago that the world would come out of lockdowns demanding shorter work days and having their demands met, I would be flabbergasted and absolutely bewildered.
The idea of having your work week cut short and your weekends extended sounds like a dream. As we speak, countries like Belgium, New Zealand, and Japan are bringing that notion to practice. While some received favorable results, others struggled to find their footing and the perfect rhythm. In spite of that, it is undeniable that plenty could be done during your three days weekend. You could go on trips. Work on those passion projects you have been putting off for too long. You could even finish a book in three days! You could achieve all that... but at what cost? Double workload? Stricter deadlines? A toll on your mental health?
Four-days work weeks are not for every industry; every country; and certainly not for everybody. At the end of the day, it all comes down to one single question: Is working four days a week for you?
Without further ado, let’s get to the questions!
Are you organized?
Four business days is four business days. As work piles up on you, getting all of it done on time is challenging in its own right. With restricted time for when different tasks must be done, being organized is key to keeping your workflow flowing. Being organized could help you go through five days worth of work in four as it enables you to easily prioritize your tasks. It could also save you a great deal of time trying to figure out what goes where. An organized person would find the new work schedule less disheartening.
How do you perform under pressure?
It’s a lot of pressure working on a lot of tasks within a short period of time. Those who will thrive in situations that are highly limited such as this one require resilience and a strong mentality. If that person is not you, you might want to consider practicing that skill and get yourself into a workathon! Putting yourself into unnecessarily stressful situations could also hinder your health and harm your long-term productivity. Don’t you worry, this is not to say that you should not work on yourself; you should most definitely do! Just.. pace yourself.
(Source: Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash)
Are you easily distracted?
To all of us who have been working from home for the last two years, we experienced distractions first hand being in the comfort of our own homes. If you are an easily distracted person, you may find working four days a week too overwhelming to deal with since little work will get done! Having taller heaps of work will not sound good to you! On the other hand, if you have undivided attention towards the work that you do, you might breeze through four days like it’s nothing.
Can you endure long work hours?
There’s no escaping it. You saw it coming. Companies might let you have your way with your extra day off when they announce the changes to the companies’ work schedules but they will always get back at you one way or another because they are here for business. To compensate for a day lost, they will just have you put in more work and grind for longer hours – it’s as simple and easy as that! Ok, sure, this might sound super unfair to you but think of it from their perspective! A day less of work means that they are paying more and getting less in return. They are at loss here – and no one likes to be at loss, right?
Are you a multitasking person?
Sometimes working five days worth of work in a day less means juggling between different tasks all at once. If you have yet to master this skill, you might want to reconsider what you have in mind. You need to possess a certain level of agility and adaptability to be able to get through a day worth of work and more in approximately the same amount of time (since the difference would not be that noticeable).
That wraps up the questions you might want to give some thoughts to before concurring with your companies’ change of schedules! It takes you three seconds to say yes to an idea but you may spend days and weeks regretting it.
So, do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? You be the judge of that!
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