6 Ways to Reimagine How, When and How Much We Work

Don’t stop with the 4-day work week. Let’s get creative in how we measure productivity.

Image from Storytale.io

Admit it — as soon as the story about Iceland’s successful trial of the 4 day working week was announced, your heart felt a flicker of hope. “At last! Now I’ll be able to get more sleep/learn how to kickbox/spend more time with my kids with all that extra free time!”

I also felt the same flutter when I read about the trial, and started to already plan out how my week might look if larger organizations were to adopt a shorter working week.

But something didn’t sit right. Even if we did move to a shorter working week, it’s clear there are still a few flaws with the approach:

• It isn’t a very successful measure of productivity. Who cares if you’re doing four days a week if the work you produce is awful?
• It still doesn’t necessarily guarantee good results. Why should four set days a week be the most efficient use of someone’s time?
• It isn’t that revolutionary. Why are we still confining ourselves to a set number of days per week as the only way to measure a person’s dedication to work?

The concept of tracking output by the number of hours you work, as well as…