I'm not sure I see the benefits. I personally enjoy the 3+2 week: work Mon-Wed, Thursday off, work Fri-Sat, Sunday off. Basically spreading the weekend over the entire week.
I do not like the idea of being relaxing at the end of the week, why not give yourself a break during the week? Some say "oh but I'd need two days off for kids/family/travel" — if you have flexible hours, you can move stuff around and take those two or more days off whenever you want.
In any case, what is insane is working 8 hours a day, not 5 days a week. If you want to work less and enjoy life more, work fewer hours in a day.
I agree. In practice I do 7 days, 4 hours of deep work a day, but on the days off I work on whatever tickles my fancy, rather than the most pressing task.
I find leaving some unstructured space to chase what feels fun, which might be work, a side project or a new idea, is a better approach if one has a squirrel brain like mine.
I have found I work best 9-1pm in one go, when I am refreshed, stimulants in the blood and no one's around, while leaving the entire afternoon and evening for everything else.
Assuming you want to keep working ~40 hours a week, I feel like the best idea are four 8.5 hour days and Friday as a half day. This gives you half a day to "decompress" and still have a two day weekend ahead of you. This is the working time model most common in my country.
In the late 90's I worked at a company that had 36 hours a week. If you came in regular times, you'd get Friday afternoon off. I used to come in a bit early and leave a bit late on Monday to Thursday and then take the entire Friday off.
This is assuming that your family and friends are also available at the time. But if they're working classic hours, then they may be available only on the normal weekends, which may not overlap with yours
I like this idea, but it would only be practical if we had a calendar that displays the Planito cycle on a daily basis, regardless of whether it's on the table or as a widget on a mobile device/computer.
I think it's great to have more options to fit more lifestyles/needs. The traditional modes of 5d/8h commuting to an office are quickly becoming anachronistic with their rigid ceremonies. A Puritanical work ethic can be considered virtuous, but I don't think it's healthy long-term for the individual, or their families, or society in a modern context.
I've been a self-employed I.T. consultant for several years, and at the beginning my workload was sort of absurd. I pulled in every possible opportunity, and engaged in the kind of ~60+ hour hustle that I'd been indoctrinated into thinking was a necessary mark of success. It took me a year or two before I learned that saying "No thanks," to less attractive offers would not, in fact, lead to me being broke and unemployed. Instead, the time I had previously spent running superfluous calls for some other company's clients was quickly occupied by much more rewarding work, and crucially for the folks on my own roster.
I've since settled into what I consider to be a healthy balance: I work with clients Monday-Thursday, and Fridays are a short day for administrative/overflow (usually wrapping up before noon). I allow for one Monday every month to serve as a "flex" personal day which I don't always take, but it enables fairly regular 4-day weekends for personal projects, volunteering, travel, and family time. I also take advantage of a quirk in the Gregorian calendar[1] that provides the occasional month with 5 Mondays. I mark these on my calendar every year, and I always take the 5th Monday off. These 5th Mondays I take more seriously as idle time, like a holy day of sloth. Most days off I'll still have my phone, and will stay plugged-in and available if something happens to come up; but the 5th Mondays (as well as the weekend preceding them) get an out-of-office reply and outgoing VM message while I spend those few long weekends every year completely untethered.
I don't adhere to any strict set of hours for work days, my workload really doesn't lend itself to very predictable or set routines at that level. Instead, each day is split into three available blocks between 8:00a and 6:00p, and I usually schedule two of them each day (~6-hours). Sometimes, maybe 1-2 times every month, I'll have a full day's schedule and/or an unplanned light day. This routine probably isn't ideal for folks who prefer more rigid planning, but I enjoy the variety, and it's still a very generous balance that has proven successful in preserving my energy, motivation, positive attitude, and high standard of quality, while allowing me to enjoy the other things in life.
I can't wait for one of the deranged billionaires on Xitter to try instituting this somewhere. Egon Musk, this would wonderful for Tesla's productivity! And people of color and women probably hate it!
holy shit that sounds awful, i cannot imagine working for 6 straight days even with a 3 day weekend! I guess it's a marginal improvement in that there are only 2 work days per rest day but it's still wild to me that 6 back to back work days are being touted as "balanced", i think we can generally agree that 3 day weekends on a 7 day week are acceptable, and that's 1.333 (repeating of course) rest days per work day.
I've found 3 work days, and 4 weekend days to be a good balance myself, though the reality is it's actually just the one middle day in the three where all the work gets done. The first day you ramp up, the second day is a hackathon, the third day is cleanup, refactor and polish. I much prefer to compress all of my time sold to someone else into as dense a chunk as possible in order to focus on what's actually important.
Long uninterrupted stretches of life where you're unbound from external pressures and are free to self-determine and pursue happiness and growth.
Yeah the six straight days would be brutal, even if the days were shorter. Maybe a 3-1-3-2 would be alright (if we're cool with non-7 day weeks). But if we're getting wild, how about a 3-2-3-2 approach?
I propose Profito: A 3-day week for a profitable life. For every 3 days you work, you get 4 days free.
In many competitive professions, your outcomes are based on your rank, or it is winner take most after a cutoff.
So sometimes being 1 percent better gives 1000x rewards.
I do not like the idea of being relaxing at the end of the week, why not give yourself a break during the week? Some say "oh but I'd need two days off for kids/family/travel" — if you have flexible hours, you can move stuff around and take those two or more days off whenever you want.
In any case, what is insane is working 8 hours a day, not 5 days a week. If you want to work less and enjoy life more, work fewer hours in a day.
Creating strong habits and momentum is key to getting things done efficiently and effectively.
I find leaving some unstructured space to chase what feels fun, which might be work, a side project or a new idea, is a better approach if one has a squirrel brain like mine.
The workday as described in this article (8am to 2:30pm) does leave plenty of time to spend with family, friends and on hobbies, even on weekdays.
I don't have full control of my schedule at the minute, but if I did this could be quite interesting
I prefer a 4-day work week with Wednesdays off. Then we never work more than 2 days in a row.
I've been a self-employed I.T. consultant for several years, and at the beginning my workload was sort of absurd. I pulled in every possible opportunity, and engaged in the kind of ~60+ hour hustle that I'd been indoctrinated into thinking was a necessary mark of success. It took me a year or two before I learned that saying "No thanks," to less attractive offers would not, in fact, lead to me being broke and unemployed. Instead, the time I had previously spent running superfluous calls for some other company's clients was quickly occupied by much more rewarding work, and crucially for the folks on my own roster.
I've since settled into what I consider to be a healthy balance: I work with clients Monday-Thursday, and Fridays are a short day for administrative/overflow (usually wrapping up before noon). I allow for one Monday every month to serve as a "flex" personal day which I don't always take, but it enables fairly regular 4-day weekends for personal projects, volunteering, travel, and family time. I also take advantage of a quirk in the Gregorian calendar[1] that provides the occasional month with 5 Mondays. I mark these on my calendar every year, and I always take the 5th Monday off. These 5th Mondays I take more seriously as idle time, like a holy day of sloth. Most days off I'll still have my phone, and will stay plugged-in and available if something happens to come up; but the 5th Mondays (as well as the weekend preceding them) get an out-of-office reply and outgoing VM message while I spend those few long weekends every year completely untethered.
I don't adhere to any strict set of hours for work days, my workload really doesn't lend itself to very predictable or set routines at that level. Instead, each day is split into three available blocks between 8:00a and 6:00p, and I usually schedule two of them each day (~6-hours). Sometimes, maybe 1-2 times every month, I'll have a full day's schedule and/or an unplanned light day. This routine probably isn't ideal for folks who prefer more rigid planning, but I enjoy the variety, and it's still a very generous balance that has proven successful in preserving my energy, motivation, positive attitude, and high standard of quality, while allowing me to enjoy the other things in life.
[1] https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/repeating-month.html
https://xkcd.com/320/
I've found 3 work days, and 4 weekend days to be a good balance myself, though the reality is it's actually just the one middle day in the three where all the work gets done. The first day you ramp up, the second day is a hackathon, the third day is cleanup, refactor and polish. I much prefer to compress all of my time sold to someone else into as dense a chunk as possible in order to focus on what's actually important.
Long uninterrupted stretches of life where you're unbound from external pressures and are free to self-determine and pursue happiness and growth.
Alternatively, if you hate 9 hour days, 9 days of 8 hours each every 2 weeks.
It'll lower road congestion and get people a lot more free time than the hours cut by reducing commute.