Have you ever thought that the more you work, the more tasks youll get done?

Unfortunately, this is just an illusion that most people believe in.

Today more and more people work 50, 60, and even 70 hours a week, turning their
desks into second homes.

However, multiple experiments done by K. Anders Ericsson, one of the top experts
on the psychology of work, have shown that people can only do 4 or 5 hours
of productive work per day. After their performance reaches its highest point, output
tends to stall, and people suffer at work.

"If youre pushing people well beyond the time they can really concentrate
maximally, youre very likely to get them to acquire some bad habits. Whats worse,
those bad habits could end up spilling into the time people are normally productive,"
Ericsson tells.

Managers who shortened the work week got more significant returns on their
investment in terms of output, worker retention, and their personal and
professional happiness.

Ryan Carson, CEO of Treehouse, implemented a 32-hour work week in 2006. Ever
since, his employees have become happier and more productive.

According to Carson, the company is very successful today, its annual revenue
is estimated in the millions of dollars, and employees are happy to come to work each
day.

A similar story is true for Reusser Design, a full-scale web development company.
They switched to a four-day work week back in 2013. Company founder Nate
Reusser says, "Even if employees work overtime on Fridays, their performance
is much higher. You have no idea how people hustle to finish projects before they
go on vacation."

As an experiment, the four-day school week was also introduced for 4th and 5th
graders in Colorado. As it turned out, the reading and math results of students who
studied for just four days a week went up by 6% and 12% accordingly compared
to kids who attended for all five.

"I think the idea that children will be fully concentrating during all their classes
is unreasonable," Ericsson says. This is especially true for children who have
problems concentrating and staying focused.

The findings of this research suggest that even a simple redistribution of work
time can have enormous benefits for employees and companies.

In 2008, in the middle of Americas financial crisis, former Utah governor Jon
Huntsman implemented a plan to reorganize the work week.

Nearly 75% of state employees switched to a four-day week but began to work
10 hours per day. This solution not only reduced the costs for heating, cooling, and
powering the buildings but also produced increased worker morale. People enjoyed
the extra day off and were satisfied with the change since they were no longer
slogging through rush-hour traffic.

That is why shortening the work week is useful both for employees and
companies.