title: 4 + 3
url: https://adactio.com/journal/18620
hash_url: 6513cd7104f4e6a8c7b3e0d759b467d8

<p>I work a four-day week now.</p>

<p>It started with the first lockdown. Actually, for a while there, I was working just two days a week while we took a “wait and see” attitude at <a href="https://clearleft.com/">Clearleft</a> to see how The Situation was going to affect work. We weathered that storm, but rather than going back to a full five-day week I decided to try switching to four days instead.</p>

<p>This meant taking a pay cut. Time is literally money when it comes to work. But I decided it was worth it. That’s a privileged position to be in, I know. I managed to pay off the mortgage on our home last year so that reduced some financial pressure. But I also turned fifty, which made me think that I should really be padding some kind of theoretical nest egg. Still, the opportunity to reduce working hours looked good to me.</p>

<p>The ideal situation would be to have everyone switch to a four-day week without any reduction in pay. Some companies have done that but it wasn’t an option for Clearleft, alas.</p>

<p>I’m not the only one working a four-day week at Clearleft. A few people were doing it even before The Situation. We all take Friday as our non-work day, which makes for a nice long three-day weekend.</p>

<p>What’s really nice is that Friday has been declared a “no meeting” day for everyone at Clearleft. That means that those of us working a four-day week know we’re not missing out on anything and it’s pretty nice for people working a five-day week to have a day free of appointments. We have our end-of-week all-hands wind-down on Thursday afternoons.</p>

<p>I haven’t experienced any reduction in productivity. Quite the opposite. There may be a corollay to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law">Parkinson’s Law</a>: work contracts to fill the time available.</p>

<p>At one time, a six-day work week was the norm. It may well be that <a href="https://www.4dayweek.com/">a four-day work week</a> becomes the default over time. That could dovetail nicely with increasing automation.</p>

<p>I’ve got to say, I’m really, really liking this. It’s quite nice that when Wednesday rolls around, I can say “it’s almost the weekend!”</p>

<p>A three-day weekend feels normal to me now. I could imagine tilting the balance even more over time. Maybe every few years I could reduce the working by a day or half a day. So instead of going from a full-on five-day working week straight into retirement, it would be more of a gentle ratcheting down over the years.</p>
