There are 104 weekends in the 2020 financial year and you have the potential to turn all of them into a long weekend with a four-day workweek.
Everyone knows โworking from homeโ is bullshit. Itโs an awkward mix of sleeping in, life admin and needing to look alive on emails.
This article is not about keeping up that charade. Itโs about zero compromises and convincing the boss you can cut an entire day from your workweek.
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Timing is key
Everyone has different brain capacities at different times of the day, but most are on high alert and switched on in the morning, so go hard. Head into the office, chuck on some noise-cancelling headphones and get stuck into that one task you would ordinarily avoid until the afternoon. Donโt check your email, donโt scroll Facebook, donโt pass go.
The 3-oโclock slump is real. Save that sluggish time for catching up on admin or responding to emails.
Practice deep focus
Psychologists have finally confirmed that there is no such thing as multi-tasking โ tell the missus. When you flick back and forth between Slack, client contracts, Reddit and the fantasy F1 trades in your WhatsApp group, you supposedly lose up to 90 seconds a pop.
You just canโt get your best work done when youโre scattered or when your to-do list is not prioritised. At the start of the week, you should try to have all your days mapped out.
If you wear a few different hats, set up your days in terms of themes, so you donโt lose too much time switching per day.
Business coach Dan Sullivan suggests:
- Free days are separate from all business activities
- Focus days are spent on your most important work
- Buffer days are for planning and admin
Or opt for Y Combinator founder, Paul Grahamโs โmaker managerโ model:
- Managers divide their day into one-hour intervals (or less) to swap between tasks
- Makers need longer stretches of distraction-free flow time (usually half a day at a time)
Let your boss, colleagues or clients in on your overlapping days or times, so they know when to best reach (or not bother) you.
Batching
Add a sneaky line into your email signature saying you only check it twice a day, and to contact you on your mobile only if itโs urgent. Remove auto-refresh on your email, and instead โ open it around midday and in that mid-afternoon slump.
Or turn on auto-responder for the days or times youโre in flow. Because autoresponders are fucking annoying on the recipientsโ end, adjust it to send a single read receipt, and set it up, so it only sends one response per week.
Do it once and never again
If you find youโre continually being asked the same questions, from clients or colleagues, batch them in an FAQ format, and chuck the link in your signature.
If you train staff, set up a folder with templates, instructions, and even on-screen videos where you record how you want people to do things so they can access it without bothering you.
Get out of meetings
Enough said. Donโt agree to a meeting if it has a blurry agenda and end time. Ask for the questions in advance so you can โbest prepare forโฆโ getting the fuck out of it. The bonus is that youโll sound bloody keen.
The tough part
If you work with awesome people and have a fun office, itโs going to be hard to pull back from the banter around the water cooler. But ask yourself, do you like the flogs you work with or do they just make getting through the day a bit easier?
Work is not your life. If you donโt like a colleague enough to spend time with them out of the office, youโve got to look at small talk with them as the time that adds up and prevents you from taking a day off a week.
Outsource the small stuff
Donโt just do something because it needs doing. Itโs easy and can feel refreshing to do those โquickโ in-between tasks because itโs a cool-off from other more annoying tasks.
You could entirely outsource these to a super-keen newbie. Itโs a win-win.
Youโre pretending to take an interest in management while lessening your to-do list. And it goes without saying, always review any outsourced work.
Track your productivity and make the boss an offer he canโt refuse
Systematically record the changes youโve been implementing and track all your output. A column estimating how much time, and money, youโve saved your boss will make your offer a hard one to knock back.
Remember, it has to look like the right business decision for them, as well as being a massive lifestyle win for you.
Before you go in with the kill, butter them up with a trial period. Suggest a fortnight or monthly trial of taking Fridayโs off, and pencil in a formal session to review your progress afterwards.
If youโre producing quality work, in less time, youโre going to have significant leverage.
If itโs not going to plan, you have at least prepared a shit tonne of collateral to ask for more money, flexible working hours, or float a potential move another company more willing to accommodate your ideal schedule.
If all else fails, you can use all of the above to give yourself more free time in your day. And then just implement George Costanzaโs hack to avoid taking on extra work in that free time.
The trick is, if you look impatient and annoyed all the time, your boss will think you are always busy. Noted.
RELATED: Aussie Company Versaโs Four-Day Week Nearly Tripled Its Profits
