Four Hour Work Week? Yeah Right!

Human beings, being human beings, link what they hear to what they know. So when they hear the term four hour work week, they compare it to their current workload and immediately dismiss the possibility as not viable. Which is a shame.

Lets try an exercise. Think of someone around you (not yourself) who is worked to the bone. Someone who is frazzled.. Think of the activities you see them doing, and scrap anything they perform for fun or pleasure, like blog posting. Now go through those “work” activities and look at those that can be done either in a more organised way, by someone else, or can be scrapped altogether.

Take my neighbour for example. Here are the list of activities that she does in a morning before even starting the dreaded commute into work

• Puts load of washing on
  Cooks breakfast
  Feeds and plays with Cat
  Cleans up after cat
  Washes up breakfast dishes
  Waters plants
  Hangs out washing
  Checks mailbox
  Puts out trash

Now I think she is pretty organised in how she orders her time here, BUT what if we saw she had changed to doing this

• Cooks breakfast
  Feeds and plays with cat
  have 1 hour of yoga/learning activity/writes blog post

While her hired housekeeper does

• Puts load of washing on
  Cleans up after cat
  Washes up breakfast dishes
  Waters plants
  Hangs out washing
  Checks mailbox
  Puts out trash

If you have ever played the most popular game in the world of all time The Sims, you know that the jump from doing things yourself to having someone else do it will make all the difference to your energy levels too.

This example is a very simple one, and domestic at that. In later posts I will look at what I do at work, and what i am doing to claim back the time I need and want.

Tags: fourhour work week, the sims, allison reynolds