02/06/2026
By 6am today (the Tuesday after a long weekend), I'd already had two conversations with people wishing they worked a four-day week.
Not because they're lazy.
Because they're feeling stretched.
Because they wish they had more time for the things that light them up 🤩
I probably have at least a couple of these conversations every week.
And the interesting thing is that most people aren't spending weekends relaxing.
Saturday becomes cleaning, laundry, maintenance and catching up.
Sunday becomes groceries, meal prep, bills and getting ready for another week.
A long weekend suddenly feels luxurious because there's finally a day left over for living.
Which always gets me wondering...
❓ Is the 40-hour week becoming (or already) redundant?
The five-day work week was created in a very different era.
Today, most of us are trying to fit everything into the same 168 hours:
💤 Sleep
💼 Work
🏃♀️ Exercise
🥗 Cooking and meal prep
🧺 Cleaning and laundry
🛒 Shopping
💳 Managing finances
❤️ Caring for others
🩺 Health appointments
🤝 Volunteering and community commitments
🏡 Home and property maintenance
📧 Endless digital admin
And somehow we're surprised that everyone feels stretched 😮
I've worked a four-day week for years and one thing I've noticed is that reducing time often increases focus.
When time is scarce, priorities become clearer.
I actually become more productive.
The question isn't whether people can work less.
The question is whether we're measuring the right thing.
🤷🏼♀️ Should we be measuring hours worked?
Or outcomes achieved?
A huge shout out to Andrew Barnes ONZM, whose work helped spark the global four-day week movement.
👏🏼 What a legacy.
⏩ Fast forward to the end of your life.
Do you think you'll wish you'd spent more time in meetings and emails?
Or more time pursuing the people, passions and experiences that mattered most?
If you could work a four-day week tomorrow without sacrificing your career, would you?
And what's currently taking up the biggest chunk of your time outside of work?
