Conversations about a shorter workweek are happening in some surprising places. Here's what's happening, country by country.
Why working fewer hours would make us more productive
A shorter working week could improve our mental and physical health and even mitigate climate change, research shows
Swedish Six-Hour Workday Runs Into Trouble: It’s Too Costly
Swedes looking forward to a six-hour workday just got some bad news: the costs outweigh the benefits.
Going for the 5 hour workday
Update: it's been a month since my proposal was approved - details at the end. Before my month long vacation I was in a crisis. Now I'm back at work and regardless of the great team and awesome project - I'm feeling the crisis creeping back. It's not the job,
How the Six-Hour Workday Actually Saves Money
A Swedish experiment may have missed the bigger picture of how shorter days can mean long-term profit.
The 10 Things You Learn After One Month Of Remote Work | I Done This
At iDoneThis, we’ve got our team spread all across the world. Germany, Italy, New York, Wisconsin. The company has been remote from Day 1 and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Working from a home office or coworking space gives us the freedom to work how we want and…
It's the 21st century – why are we working so much? | Owen Hatherley
Owen Hatherley: The right calls for hard work, the left for more jobs. The dream of mechanisation leading to shorter working hours seems forgotten
Work less, get more: New Zealand firm's four-day week an 'unmitigated success'
Reduced hours for same pay increased successful work-life balance management, cutting stress levels and boosting commitment
Life in Weeks
My life, where each week I’ve been alive is a little box, inspired by this post by Tim Urban. When meaningful things happen (for both better and worse) I make a note of it so I can remember how much of life is influenced by these factors. If you’d like to create your own version of this, it’s basically a data file, a template, and a blog post mashed together on Jekyll blog hosted on Netlify.
The Times are Urgent: Let’s Slow Down • Writings – Bayo Akomolafe
An Open Letter to CONCORD-DEEEP, CIVICUS, GCAP, Civic Society Organizations and Activists Working for a ‘Better’ World. This article is co-authored by Bayo Akomolafe and Marta Benavides. With deep gratitude for the stories of transformation now emerging across the planet, and for the renewed hope we share for a different kind of world, we greet you from our hearts.
Gap Week: March 20, 2026
Hey folks! I was traveling this week to give an invited talk at Western Michigan University, so I don’t have a blog post ready for you. That’ll also probably be the case for next week (…
Gap Week: March 20, 2026
Hey folks! I was traveling this week to give an invited talk at Western Michigan University, so I don’t have a blog post ready for you. That’ll also probably be the case for next week (…
Remote Work Productivity Study: Surprising Findings From a 4-Year Analysis
Explore key findings from a longitudinal remote work productivity study. Learn how working from home impacts performance and why productivity remains strong.
How three-day weekends can help save the world (and us, too) | Trellis
It's not just reduced emissions from less commuting that helps.
Less stress, more productivity: why working fewer hours is better for you and your employer
There’s always too much work to be done on software projects, too many features to implement, too many bugs to fix. Some days you’re just not going through the backlog fast enough, you’re not producing enough code, and it’s taking too long to fix a seemingly-impossible bug. And to make things worse you’re wasting time in pointless meetings instead of getting work done. Once it gets bad enough you can find yourself always scrambling, working overtime just to keep up. Pretty soon it’s just expected, and you need to be available to answer emails at all hours even when there are no emergencies. You’re tired and burnt out and there’s still just as much work as before. The real solution is not working even harder or even longer, but rather the complete opposite: working fewer hours.
2026 State of the Workplace
Get the latest insights from state of the workplace report spanning more than 443 million hours of work activity across 1,111 organizations and 163,638 employees over three years.
