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Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

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Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#111
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Its not racist. I would support it if you are personally willing to take the punishment for any heinous crimes committed by immigrants.

It’s not racist!!

> makes it even more racist

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#112

Funnily enough Im more the opposite. Give me 10 hour days for 3 days a week and I'd jump at the chance. An extra 2 hours at the end of the day isnt much to get used to, but being able to spend more full days not working than working would mean a lot to me. That vs the proposed 6-hour 4-day week some people mentioned in this thread, it'd be very happy with either obviously, but I still think I'd go for 3 days if I had…

Your brain and body recharges every night. Memory function actually improves over night. Doing more hours doesn't make you more productive, the amount of meaningful work you can do in a day is pretty much constant.

I'm definitely in the shorter days camp. In my experience there's a 2 to 4 hour peak performance window and a long tail of diminishing brain power.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#113
post #21

The thing about the 5 days a week is that at the weekends you end up doing personal stuff you neglected during the workdays. I'm not sure that having two more hours a day will free up your weekend, I'm kind of leaning to 4 days a week because you can actually have useful time. Personally, I wouldn't object to 3 days of non-stop working till the midnight to have 4 free days a week. Things won't pile up and instead of…

those 2 hours (actually 3+ since it's normal for 9+ hours over here) include everything from shops, sun, avoiding traffic and other things I didn't mention or think about. also allows you to plan your day differently, like working 12-6 instead of 9-3 for example. imagine waking up at 6am and only starting work at 12pm...

In that case being done with work at 12pm sounds like a much better deal.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#114

This is the great thing about remote working. When I worked in the office I felt like I needed to be seen working, even if I really wasn’t because, let’s face it, programming often requires time not working to allow your subconscious to figure out the solution to the problem you are working on. So I would have my butt in the seat, but wasn’t actually doing anything. Now with remote work I can go for a walk, do the di…

I believe that's an open secret few, if any, people are talking about and is the largest reason why WFH has increased productivity so much. Not to mention your mental health is far improved because you don't have to keep up the BS of appearing to work to people who don't understand the nature of our work. They're still scratching their heads as to why we became so much more productive while WFH.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#115
I'm all in for both. Having an extra day to spend with my family, or doing "other things" (gardening, sport, etc.) and working less everyday. I find myself being way more productive when I know my work day is short. Having too much time on my hands makes me procrastinate! Also, after ~6h of uninterrupted work, I am usually exhausted and need to do something else.

8h/day sitting in front of a computer is a lie and a bad way to measure productivity.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#116

I think this is the argument of whether to graze like a cow (working 2-4 hours 6 days a week) or work like a lion (working 9-10 hours 4 days a week). Neither is better in every case so it largely depends on what kind of work you're doing. If you're answering emails and having meetings where everyone has to sync up during the day - I'd opt for the first one. If you're developing or coding where the time of day is irre…

> graze like a cow (working 2-4 hours 6 days a week) or work like a lion (working 9-10 hours 4 days a week).

I would dislike both of those.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#118

I disagree. I have 6-7 hour workdays. That's nice but no nearly as nice as another free day. I still feel like I have no time for my own life/projects. I still feel exhausted after working even 6-7-hours (because I'm not a morning person naturally yet have to go work in the morning) and the evening time (nor even an evening nap) never actually feels nice if I worked that day. I go out on Saturday, sleep until evening…

When I'm not on site I work 4x10 hour days, usually 0900-1900, with 1h25 break. When I'm out and about I'll work as long as I need to, 12 hours is a typical day, but any hours I do over 35 per week get paid time-and-a-half. If I'm out on an event and say staying in a hotel in rural Norfolk, I'd far rather work from 10 or 11 to 2300 than do 1500-2300, it's not like I'm going to make use of the extra 4 hours in the mor…

What are you doing for the first 5 hours? I typically find that if I'm actually working and not in too many meetings I'm basically checked out after 5 straight hours if I haven't wandered off already.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#119
post #23

I worked in the Netherlands. They had a 36 work week and asked me how I preferred to arrange those hours. I said: divide it by five please. Apparently I was the first person in their history (3k people work there! 100 years old institution) who asked for that! Everyone took either a day every two weeks off or worked 4x9hrs. A day every week or two is nice, of course, but I generally really like short days better! Doe…

Do you know how people usually place their free day? Is it adjacent to weekend or middle of the week?
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