Companies that have adopted a 4-day workweek record much better levels of productivity

The length of time anything takes to finish is completely dependant on how much time you give it. In fact, if you offer too much time you will most likely get nothing done at all.

As a futurist, I regard time as a critical business tool. Not only am I massively interested in the time yet to come (i.e. the future) but in my practice as an innovator, I have found that if you want to dramatically improve levels of creativity from a team or the quantity of ideas from a brainstorm - you simply need to give the process a very restrictive timeframe.

How fascinating is it then that companies that are experimenting with 4 day work weeks are actually seeing a dramatic increase in the levels of productivity and profits from their organisations.  

Microsoft Japan have been using a 4-day work week and have recorded a staggering 40% jump in productivity from teams. People in the organisation are more rested; and when they do work, they get far more done that they would even if they had more time.

Just think of how much time people in your office spend drinking tea, smoking cigarettes, talking crap, engaged in nonsense meetings - all because they perceive that they have 8 hours of daily time to fill.

Also just consider the fact that if people are not locked up in an office all day, they have time on their hands to spend all they money that they are earning on leisure and retail activities [a fact that should make the neoclassical economists reading this post develop a rather hard erection].

In South Africa - our economy suffers rather badly from the effects of people wasting huge amounts of time sitting in traffic or stuck on an unmoving train; time that could be better spent with family...or shopping. There is evidence to suggest that giving people this time back could dramatically improve the economic situation.

So that then is an interesting strategy to consider for 2020. Cut the work week to 4 days - you'll improve the number of people wanting to work at your organisation, you'll generate some staggering PR hits, your staff will more rested, fight less, love you more and work harder.

Related: New Zealand firm sees massive benefits of a 4 day workweek - The Japan Times