Increase productivity by working fewer hours.

Working 8 hours a day has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because when it came into being, as it prevented people from working over eight hours a day. A curse because, well, you honestly don’t need those eight hours to peak.

Shiny Happy (Swedish) People.

A recent Swedish move to make employees happier and more productive led to a decrease in working hours from eight to six hours a day. The results? Happier employees who get the same amount of work done in fewer hours. Why work eight hours with poor productivity and low motivation when you can work six and flourish? It’s a question many people ask themselves, but never even think of it as something they can change. According to a research by FlexJobs, only 7% of people feel like they get the best out of themselves during their working hours. Let that sink in.

Reshaping our working hours.

Everything seems to be going well. The economy is back on track, consumers are increasing their spending, and employment rates are looking positive. This gives us some time to take a long, deep breath and take a closer look at what we’re actually doing. Once it truly becomes accepted that working eight hours in a set timeframe prevents employees from reaching their true potential, will help more companies see the light and proactively promote change. And why shouldn’t we want that change? The environment sure seems ready for it, as the way people look at working in general is changing. In the past, it was a given that you worked certain hours for five days a week. Today? Not so much. The rise of entrepreneurship, flexible working and newly established ways of promoting productivity are revamping the landscape completely. And that’s a good thing.

Same cure, same pay.

The hard part of working fewer hours is when you’re not your own boss. Most employers pay for a certain amount of hours worked, which makes sense. But, if you’re getting the same work done in a timeframe of five hours instead of eight, shouldn’t the pay be the same? Measuring this is hard, and actually allowing this requires a whole lot of mutual trust between employer and employee. But it sure is something to work towards, so that we can start to think about establishing that perfect work-life balance and be a happier person for it.