What are your thoughts on working less and accomplishing more? Do you think it’s possible to work for less hours but actually work smarter vs harder? If you asked me a few years ago I’d say no way, we can’t do things any faster or more efficiently.
Summer 2020 was hot and we were sweltering in the office even with our portable air conditioner. It was impossible to think, design or even have an intelligent conversation. Once 3pm hit we were feeling like a Salvador Dali painting and productivity was out the door leaving our bodies locked inside. I looked at Amy and Emily one day and said, “look, I know neither of you are early morning people but what do you think of working 7:30-3:30 for the summer months?” We changed our hours the following Monday and even when the fall arrived decided to just keep them as it gave us more free time after work for other things. It also gave us more time in the morning to get our day rolling before calls and emails came in.
Fast forward a year and I was listening to something on the radio about companies in Switzerland or Sweden adopting a 4 day work week with regular hours, not four 10 hour days. Studies had shown that people with these shorter work weeks were more productive, happier, more creative ultimately helping the companies flourish. I wondered, could we do that? How could we do that? And then in the fall we tested it out using a rotating schedule. I was expecting total failure, stress, falling behind and to likely scrap the whole thing by November. Guess what did happen? Productivity increased, design improved, my team was loving it and we were completing jobs faster!
If you’re curious how we made the transition successful send me a message. The 4 day work week has been one of the best moves I ever made from my business!