Who doesn’t like a four day week? But has it ever been analyzed as much as Joe Sanok does in his book titled “Thursday is the new Friday” and published by HarperCollins Leadership, 2021. He is a mental health professional and the host of the “Practice of the Practice” podcast. He argues that the five-day work week must undergo an overhaul not just because it is a remnant of a bygone era but also because it provides an opportunity to take control of one’s schedule and spend more time to better match how the brain works. This improves productivity and reduces stress leading to a healthier and happier life.

Covid-19 has recently demonstrated that working remotely is favored over 9-5 five-days-a-week. In many cases, this improves productivity and job satisfaction. The 9-5 five-day-workweek was popularized by Henry Ford in 1926 and has its roots as early as 1886 for safer worker conditions at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. But in the current times, the author recommends us to slow down, set boundaries and shrink the work week to spend more time with family, practice self-care and make a meaningful contribution to our world.

Before we jump into it, we should measure our individual success. There are three internal inclinations that are good predictors: “curiosity”, an “outsider approach”, and the ability to “move on it”. These inclinations come from DNA, upbringing, culture and experience. If the current inclinations are not serving us well, we must develop specific inclinations to do our best work.

The author contends that those who are curious and proceed despite the warnings are the ones that truly make an impact. Author Isaac Asimov once said that the most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds discoveries is not ‘Eureka’ but ‘That’s funny.’

An outsider approach starts to die when we think conforming is safer than being unique. Humans are social animals who gravitate towards group membership and try to avoid social rejection. Building once’s immunity to rejections helps us reduce feelings of vulnerability. Mindfulness practices such as meditation also reduce psychological vulnerability.

Moving on launching a product or service by striking a balance between speed and accuracy is recommended. A minimum viable product aka MVP leads to faster improvements over several iterations and avoids the paralysis for attaining perfection.  Joe says that the internal inclination of jumping before we are ready is about standing up against the predominant narrative that we ‘practice until perfect’. When we move on it before we are ready, it gives us a download of information that informs our path to action. The three questions to launch rule can help articulate this:

Describe the pain – what does it take in terms of effort to realize this product?

Describe the magical product – what product is the best solution to the problem?

Describe the pay - How much would you pay for what you just described?

Taking time to recharge, recover and gain creative insights also helps avoid burnout. We have become busy to the point where we cannot keep up and this makes feel bad. Instead, the three tenets of eliminating clutter, anticipating problems and casting away 24/7 profits outlook will help boost productivity.  We could keep personal key performance indicators aka KPIs such as a weekly yoga class, regular snowboarding morning, or a daily coffee with a friend with the side-benefit of a fresh outlook and perspective, can bring joy and freedom.

Once we start measuring how much of our time is eaten away by others, we will be best positioned to decide how we want to slow down. Slowing down optimizes the brain power just as the following steps in the FIRST model boost business growth.

Fruit: low hanging fruit – enhance the areas of business that are doing well.

Inflect: act as if  - manifest the goals by acting as someone who has already reached them would

Reinvest: make the business stronger – Peter Drucker, the management guru, suggested “Do what you do best and outsource the rest”

Specialize: stand out and microniching – select the activities and client that maximize joy and benefits

Time-limited: six- and twelve- month goals – prioritize shortterm goals to remain focused.

Cycles of sprint and rest can also be alternated.