4 Day Week: Productivity & Calendar Hacks
<3 minute read
Employers and employees alike are curious to learn how to implement a 4 day work week following the results of a ground-breaking 6 month trial that introduces a viable option to change our conventional 5 day week. The study findings from Cambridge University and Boston College concluded that 92% of the companies that participated in the trial would keep their 4 day work week. A fascinating result was that revenue barely changed, and even increased by 1.4% for those reporting data, with many participants citing productivity as a major driver of the success.
In the two months pre-trial each company went through a detailed planning and review process, and were offered coaching and tools to support a positive transition. A critical focus emerged: each business was firmly focused on maintaining their productivity. Whether the organisation was planning to introduce a universal 4 day week or use rolling employee cover to ensure that each person only worked a maximum of 4 days, a commonality was they had a robust plan to ensure productivity remained the same or improved. If you are looking to transition to a 4 day work week the key is planning productivity continuity.
These days we seem to work in the belief of more work = better results. Here the participating businesses challenged that by looking at how to help their employees work more effectively. Sociologist and project lead Prof. Brendan Burchell said of the trial that
“workers were much less inclined to kill time, and actively sought out technologies that improved their productivity.”
For the study the organisers helped the organisers to work smarter. In this series of posts I'll offer some quick productivity hacks to help you get ahead that you can implement today.
Productivity tip 1: Conquer your Calendar.
Modern working means connectivity. And for many of us that means that everyone has access to your calendar: to view it, and to add to it. Take back some control to give yourself more time for both tasks and thinking:
review your calendar at the start and end of your week. On Monday look at the week ahead and ask yourself ‘do I need to attend,’ ‘what value will this add to me,’ ‘what value will I add,’ ‘how will this progress my work.’ If you cannot answer with clear value demonstrated, decline. On Friday review the week that was, identify any patterns in time spent or meetings and consider if any changes could make you more productive in the future.
schedule focused time for your key tasks, email, thinking time, personal development etc. and colour code them. Also schedule your lunch break to ensure you can refuel. Consider planning time to deal with urgent things, like a calendar safety net. If your time is scheduled, people cannot put meetings in that time.
don’t plan back to back meetings - it’s bad for you. End each meeting with a clear 10 minutes before the next one. Use that time to get up and move, make notes, prepare and reset. You’ll find your productivity will likely improve with this brief break.
Remember to regularly look for ‘calendar creepers’: events that sneak in but are of little value. To combat calendar creepers query their purpose with the meeting owner, don’t automatically accept requests, check who else is going and if you’re needed, ask for an agenda or overview of decision points.
Delegate. If one of your direct reports is attending empower them to be the representative.
Review the standing meetings you set. Cancel recurring meetings that do not have a clear value or have lost effectiveness. Wait and see if anyone notices - if someone needs the meeting you removed they’ll make that clear. Take the opportunity to revisit the structure and content of the meeting and only put it back in the calendar if you can ensure it is value-adding.
Don’t delay a decision to a meeting - try and make decisions on the spot rather than delaying with ‘let’s set a meeting to discuss it.’ Pause when you are tempted to do this and aim to decide today, communicating your decision via email, DM or a call.
Use Managing by Walking Around: make yourself available to your teams and colleagues. By stopping and chatting you can cover small things that they may be requesting calendar time for. If you work remotely schedule ‘open houses’ where people can drop into Zoom or Teams to do the same thing.
If someone else manages your calendar be clear on your principles for calendar acceptance and ask them to only accept those requests that meet them.
Sometimes we have to attend meetings that are of no discernible or immediate value, or are poorly structured. That’s unfortunately life. At the least, consider how your attendance helps a key collaborator or team member and recognise the relationship value in that case. Use it as an opportunity to start a dialogue or suggest ways to meet more productively.
The critical takeaway is that you should actively manage your calendar and prioritise value. Think of it as ROT: Return of Time - the meeting needs to bring back the value of time spent in forward momentum, decision making, opportunity seizing, critical relationship building and/or innovation. If it doesn’t, just say no.
Check back for more productivity tips…coming next is Making Meetings Matter.