What are you Doing with the Other 40 Hours?

“If only I had more time” was the catchphrase of 2019 uttered by exhausted workers, harried mothers and stressed-out students. It is hard to believe that was only 18 months ago, and yet here we are, bombarded with hybrid work scenarios.

Deloitte says “work from home forever” and KMPG has done an about-face, since facing backlash over comments their now ousted chairman Bill Michael made to employees “to stop moaning” about the pandemic, even Bumble has decided to give employees a week off to preempt potential burnout.

What I am curious about is how are you spending the other 40 hours.

A traditional 5 day work week breaks down to 40 hours for work, 40 hours for sleep, and 40 hours for everything else. Employees are being ask to consider the days they want to work, without truly pausing to consider how they spend their time, or better yet, how they want to spend their time.

40 hours for work

40 hours for sleep

40 hours for ____

Have you thought about how you are spending your time? What are you doing when you are not commuting? How often do you need or want to be in the office?

Has your employer asked you how to make the other 40 hours more valuable to you?

The pandemic has acted as an accelerator for digital transformation, in simplified terms this means that rapid advancements in technology allows us to zoom in our pajamas (bottoms, business on top!). The way I see it, is that we have been given a once in a life time opportunity, to re-design our work week. I believe we must seize this moment or look back with regret.

What are you doing with the other 40 hours?