Working Less While Producing More
I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to do work that I love with clients that I respect and enjoy.
In recent years I have also been blessed with a steady stream of new engagements that keep me fixed at my desk, my command post.
With all that being said, I feel it’s important for all of us to make space for things other than work in our lives.
Which is why, when two separate opportunities recently arose for me to take a full week off from work, I seized them – even though they both occurred in the same month.
It took a lot of preparation back at the command post to pull this off. But, as a result, I don’t think the time off negatively impacted my productivity.
In fact, just allowing myself the time to engage with a different point of view was tremendously refreshing and revitalizing.
Perhaps we workaholic Americans can learn something from Scandinavians about the relationship between time spent working and value actually produced.
According to a recent Icelandic study on the effects of shorter workweeks among government workers, spending less time working can actually increases your personal productivity.
The study, which included over 1% of the country’s total labor force, shortened workweeks from 40 to 35-36 hours while keeping pay levels constant.
Among the findings:
- Productivity remained constant or actually increased
- Stress and burnout decreased
- Overall Health and Work-Life Balance improved
What do you think? Are you ready to give this a try yourself, or let your employees show you what they can accomplish in fewer hours?
Sage
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