Is full-time work bad for our brains?

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

AI Use at Work Is Causing “Brain Fry,” Researchers Find, Especially Among High Performers

The increased speed and multitasking that AI allows at work is leading to many workers experiencing "brain fry," a new study found.

Work for only 3 hours a day, but everyday | plumshell

I am an indie iPhone developer, and I've been working for 3 hours everyday for almost 2 years now. It may not work for everybody, but I started this habit in early 2014, and I have continued to do it since have I found that this is the most productive way to work for me.

You can code only 4 hours per day. Here’s why.

Most of us have felt it: after a few solid hours of coding, your brain starts shutting down.

Doing nothing at work

Many engineers should be doing less work. I don’t necessarily mean producing less code or fewer changes, but literally working fewer hours in the day. When they do work, they should be working at a slower pace. I like to aim to be running at 80% utilization by default: unless I have a high-pressure project going on, I spend 20% of my workday away from the computer.

Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime

Research on naps, meditation, nature walks and the habits of exceptional artists and athletes reveals how mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories and encourage creativity

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.

In 2026, I’m no longer interested in ‘working on myself’

We think of ourselves as full-time projects, but what if doing so much inner work does more harm than good?

Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

Too many of us live by the myth that one less hour of sleep gives us one more hour of productivity, Tony Schwartz writes in the Life@Work column. In reality, lost sleep not only leaves us more fatigued, but also takes a toll on our cognitive capacity.

Let’s hear it for the four-hour working day

Are you working your brain too hard? Take it easy – like Charles Darwin, Alice Munro or Thomas Jefferson

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice,” or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.

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

What the Studies Say About How AI Affects Your Brain: A (Very Big) Compilation

The entire literature clearly points to a single surprising finding

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.

How I got to 200 productive hours a month

A tested approach to improve your focus and productivity

You Can Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential