For too long, how you make money has been the deemed most important part of your identity. “What do you do?” is often the first question we ask strangers. But what if “what you do” isn’t all you do, whether you make money doing your passion or not?
Carving out an extra day not only gives people more time to allocate toward hobbies, family and friends, or even chores, but it also encourages us to be more productive while working. Here our favorite advantages to transforming every weekend into a long one.
A HEALTHIER LIFE-WORK BALANCE
That’s right. We flipped it. It’s about time life comes first, which means enjoying the daily pleasures we frequently dismiss as luxuries. We still believe in “work hard, play hard,” which is why it’s not a three-day work week, but having that extra day means being able to put yourself first more often — which naturally increases your ability to focus on work when you’re doing it.
LESS POLLUTION
Cities around the country reported the clearest of skies and the cleanest air qualities during the first few weeks of quarantine. Even now, since working-from-home has continued to remain the norm for so many jobs, taking off one more work day would mean one less day to commute. This means significantly less CO2 emissions.
HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY
It’s not that your tasks are impossibly hard (most of the time), but rather that they don’t feel important or purposeful enough. Nine out of ten people have admitted to wasting time at work every single day. However, with less days in a work week comes more urgency. If you have less time to work, then you have less time to procrastinate.
MORE FLEXIBILITY
Chances are, if your company is embracing the four-day work week, then they’re most likely giving employees wiggle room to complete their work from home. This means grabbing your park blanket and taking your laptop out to the park to get those final tasks done in the sun.
LESS BURN-OUT
Of course, burnout is a result of multiple factors, particularly stemming from a lack of purpose. However, if the four-day work week is done correctly, that means it’s accompanied by strong management, efficiently planned meetings, and company-wide trust. Reducing a day from the week isn’t a slippery slope into a lazy, unmotivated workplace environment. Rather, it’s a strong commitment to show up to work with hyperfocus and intention.