We should all be working a three-day week - here’s 7 expert tips on how to do it

There are some very real reasons why you should work a three-day week – beyond the fact that having a four-day weekend would be the best thing ever.

A scientific paper this year from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found that people over 40 who work 60 hours a week are damaging their brains – and the ideal amount of work is around 30 hours.

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But is it possible to cut back the hours you do – and still make a living?

For an increasing number of self-employed people, it is not just possible – but essential, as they try to juggle work with parenting.

Here’s expert tips on how to maximise your work time – from people who have done it themselves.

Make a to-do list every evening

Lindsey Fish, who runs the Mums Enterprise Roadshow, in between looking after her three-year-old daughter, says, ‘To avoid procrastination and spending time on un-productive activities plan your working day either the night before or right before you set about work. A to-do list really helps and although we won’t ever really reach the end of them try to stick to them the best you can.’

Don’t spend your time looking at email

Dhruvin Patel of Occushield, who grew his business while studying to be an optometrist, says, ‘View email only twice a day, I say once at 11 AM and second at 3pm therefore in the morning it can allow you to complete two main tasks than need to be done. Email is a big distraction. You need to limit any distractions to your goals.’

If you’re working in a team, use Slack

Julie Bishop Founder of social media recruiting site Jobhop.co.uk One way to be less busy and be more productive is to use Slack, a team collaboration tool.

By having a place in the cloud where all your team can access at any time from anywhere projects can run more efficient and assignments and actions are all in real time.

Close social media except when you need to use it

Lindsey Fish, who runs the Mums Enterprise Roadshow says, ‘Social Media is great for business. But you can waste time following links and having conversations. Schedule posts – there are some great tools out there to help like Hootsuite, Tweet Jukebox etc which keep your social media channels going so you can work on other things. Also close down the windows when you don’t want to be working in them, it’s easy to get tempted back in.

Use your ‘odd hours’ to your advantage

Dhruvin Patel of Occushield, says, ‘Make a list of what needs to be done the night before and use business hours for the right objective completion and use out of hours to work on tasks which do not need interaction with others. I.E If you can make changes to your website yourself, do it out of business hours. If you need to pitch a potential customer get on their radar within business hours.

Don’t meet, Skype

Julie Bishop Founder of social media recruiting site Jobhop.co.uk says that technology is the key, ‘Virtual meetings are the way to do things these days! You’ll save time on travelling, getting lost and trying to park. Another tip is to deduct 15 mins from the Skype call, you will still achieve what you’ve set out to achieve, you’ll just be more focused on doing it. Send a calendar event invite before the call stating how long the session is for, that way everyone will know what time to be finished by.

Set yourself deadlines

Dhruvin Patel of Occushield, who grew his business while studying to be an optometrist, says, ‘Set deadlines, pressure increases productivity. How do you stick to your own deadlines? Social life is important to maintain happiness on the entrepreneurial or self employed journey, make plans for the day of the deadline or in-between so you’re less likely to cancel on plans and complete goals.’