Reimagine: A Compressed Work Week

Are you wrapping up work anticipating the long weekend? 

For much of today’s workforce, it’s entirely reasonable to fit a week’s worth of work into a few days in anticipation of a vacation. 

Shouldn’t that make us stop and think – why is work sucking up five days and 40+ (emphasis on the “plus” for a lot of people) hours each week when, when really pressed, we can actually do our work in less time?

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to briefly talk about a [what would be considered a] “compressed work week” and how it can be the ultimate tool to unlock better productivity, focus, engagement, and satisfaction at work!

Lots of studies have been done on a shorter workweek, whether that’s the trendy Four Day Workweek or some other iteration. We all know that if we cut out some of the waste in the workday, we could actually accomplish the same things in much less time.

Science bears this out, too. Our brains can only do truly focused work for 2 hours and 53 minutes a day. That’s right! The other 5+ hours are filled with:

• a smattering of admin

• chatting with coworkers, and a whole lot of time spent→

• doing work that doesn’t contribute to outcomes

• reactionary busy work, and a fair amount of time wasted on →

• news sites and social media. 

The first two are important to maintaining a healthy work culture, but all that wasted time? Imagine what you could do with it – outside of work!

A compressed workweek is MatchPace’s “special sauce.” 

I help organizations understand their best times for focus and creativity, ruthlessly prioritize, focus and measure outcomes instead of time spent on the clock, and then take all that saved time and use it to become healthier, happier, and more engaged humans (which certainly circles back for people to do better work - so it’s better for your mission!). 

If you’re curious HOW to cut the chaff, prioritize, and truly focus, you can find everything I’ve learned over the last several years in my book Work Reimagined: How the power of pace can help your organization achieve a new level of focus, engagement, and satisfaction. Grab a copy at this link or download the first chapter for free! Or you can always schedule a call with me!

I’ll be sure to dive into how to implement a compressed workweek in future newsletters, but for now, I’m setting my calendar to OOO – and I hope you are, too!

Working Well/Living Well

MatchPace’s ethos is that we need to be able to work and live well. “Well” doesn’t always mean rosy or positive. Instead, it reflects the reality of doing good work! And the same is true for living well. Sharing each week how I’m living well reminds me I’m a whole person, with a full identity outside of work. 

Working Well: I’m getting ready for my close-up! 

In partnership with a client’s request, we’re turning Aligned Leaders into an online course! I’m currently making modules and lessons and will be recording videos soon! 

Aligned Leaders Online will be ready for the public by September!

Living Well: For the last decade, we’ve spent the 4th of July at the Old Soldiers Home here in DC. 

They open up one of their golf-course fairways to the community, and we all set up blankets and bring snacks, and enjoy a chill evening. 

There used to be a view of the fireworks going off at the Washington Monument, but the trees have grown up, so now we just enjoy all the fireworks people set off in the neighborhoods nearby!

Follow me on LinkedIn for more insight about reimagining how we work and live!