I’m a freelance software developer, so my hours are self-determined, to a large extent. However, even with projects that I charge a flat rate, my “call time” is Tuesday through Friday. I do work 10 hour days though, on those days.
The extra day for personal projects, time with family and friends, or just playing music is a welcome and necessary time alotment. I sincerely hope that we go down to three days a week, considering the human brain has about four hours of effective work per day with two hours in maximal flow-state.
I did two days on, two days off, twelve hour days for a bit. While it ended up being more hours per week on average, I really enjoyed it. Functionally, I had a four day week, Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 3/4 of the best days of the week. Hell, even Monday wasn’t bad because I always felt fresh.
I could work 4 days a week if I wanted to but I’m self-employed and I like my work. I actually work more now than I did working for a company and I’m feeling better than I did back then. I went to work today too despite it being a national holiday.
it’s fine.
it’s not some magic solution to your life problems anymore than more money would be. you adjust and the novelty wears off in a few months and you’re back to your equilibrium wishing you had more time off work.
hedonic treadmill is always in effect. people always will want more than they have.
I was working Tues-Fri, 10 hour days.
It was fantastic for the longest time. Having a three day weekend is amazing. My employer is also fine with us flexing times and days (within the set hours we’re allowed to work), so I have always taken advantage of holiday weekends for 4day weekends. It also makes PTO a little easier to maneuver with.
That being said, the 10 hour days are a strain. I’ve had to back off lately while being pretty sick. So I’m working 9s right now. M-thurs I work 9 hours, and then I work 4 hours on Friday. Which isn’t bad at all, either. Just not quite the same freedom. Mondays feel a lot more like freedom to me vs Fridays, but I’ll take it.
Not really a 4-days work week. Atm I work less than 4 days because I lost most of my freelancing work to AI. I’m trying to transition gradually to a more self sufficient rural life as I don’t see a good future coming out of computing and foresee living expenses rising further and food shortages being possible. I like spending some of my time outdoors and some of my time at the screen actually - it’s more healthy and balanced and easier on the body. 4 days of computer work (or farm work) would be too much for me actually.
I am still very tired, but I can’t imagine going back to 5 days. 20% less money is noticeable, but to me it’s worth it, I don’t care how much I make if I am lying face down all my weekends.
I work 3 days, not four, but I want to chime in. I work 11am-11pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 36 hours a week. It’s pretty sweet. Mondays, I sleep a bit extra, and generally chill with my family and pets. Monday is my recovery day. It’s also the only day my wife smokes weed, so I get high with her every Monday night. Tuesdays are for shopping/mealprep. I take my neighbor to the supermarket with me for Double Coupon day, and in exchange, I get to use her senior discount since I just pay her the money and she “buys” my groceries. Then I make big batches of food so that my family can just grab a pre-portioned container and toss it in the nuker as needed. Wednesdays are for appointments, errands, and any other adulting I need to do. I also do most of my heavy gardening work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thursdays I generally go to an event in the Public Square during good weather, and then a free concert at the casino at night. If the weather is bad, I watch some shows, movies, old school football games, or do some gaming. Then comes Friday, so I’m off to work again, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to face the work week.
I did briefly. It is not impactful as a nice lifestyle situation. So most often in my worklife I had essentially a one hour commute and job time was 8.5 or 9 hours because lunch was unpaid. so 9+2 you get 11 but like you need an hour to get ready for work (at least for me) and another for bed so 13 and then I need about 9 hours in bed to get 8 hours of sleep that I insist on so 22. dinner and some decompression in the remaining 2 hours. Maybe you can watch a show. Excersise daily and that will take it up. Honestly its easy to lose it. You don’t feel like you have much of any time. However a complete extra day per week. Not bad. Thing is I had a job where I lived three miles away from home and I could walk it for 45mins or bike it in like. I dunno pretty fast. I actually would take the scenic route that was 7 miles on the bike just to stretch my legs. So no gymn neede those days. I could also take the bus and usually that was pretty fast. Also though I could pick up groceries and do a variety of other things. So like I don’t get the extra day but I can get 5 errands done per week (more often 4 as it was nice to have more time to have fun on friday night). Getting errands done goes a long way to giving you more time come the weekend. In the end I guess im saying it is sorta 6 of one and half dozen of the other but man its nice to have a short commute and nice living situation when it comes to work and life. Did I mention most mornings my wife would walk with me and the dog to a park along the way about a mile toward my work. She would continue with the dog around the park while I continued toward work. Was awesome.
