Is it time to re-think the work week?

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We've all heard the classics: "I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on my drums all day", "Everybody's workin' for the weekend", even "Taking care of business" is about not working. Clearly something isn't working here.

So there have been pushes to alternative arrangements. Telecommuting, compressed work weeks, trading longer work hours for "more time off". But does this really work either? Sure, some people are probably more productive working from home, but it doesn't work for everyone. And while you are slaving away at those 10 hour days, are you really as productive when you are pushing hour 9 as you were when you were pushing hour 4?

Sure there's upside for you too. Nothing like that 3 day weekend every week! But really, do you make the most of your 3 day weekend?

One person I have recently come to admire is James Altucher. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is a prominent blogger, author, podcaster, etc... who mostly writes and produces content about self improvement. One of his mantras is "improve yourself 1% every day, if you do that it compounds and results in a 3800% improvement over a year".

Who has time to do all that improving?! I know I get home at around 6-ish, by the time I make dinner, eat, and even THINK about cleaning up all I want to do is watch TV for an hour or two then go to bed. Not have to use my brain, forget about work because I've got to wake up and do that grind again tomorrow.

Anyways, on a recent episode of the podcast "Ask Altucher", James interviewed 15 year old Mark Messick (I highly suggest you listen to the episode!). To give a little backstory, Mark and his family moved and Mark had to be homeschooled for a while. Mark found that doing his school work, he would routinely work productively in the morning, finishing around noon or early afternoon, and then have the afternoon off.

Now I know what you are thinking. The automatic assumption is that Mark "wasted" afternoons playing video games or watching TV. Maybe he did do some of that, however, what really struck me is that Mark mentioned he got bored, and started looking for ways to fill that boredom. With that time off, he got to reflect on himself and find what he loves.

I'd like to think that this is the natural human condition. That humans are not meant to spent hours and hours idle, that our natural desire is to make ourselves better, to innovate, to find what we love, and to be truly happy. Taking time to reflect on yourself, and who you want to be is important. In my opinion Mark supports the idea that left on our own, humans would not simply recede to the couch cushions and go extinct.

Now here is where I might get really controversial, what I would suggest is a 6 day work week working 6 hours a day. Work from 8 until 2, then when you get home, you have 3-4 hours before dinner to focus on yourself, to grow, to improve 1%.

It's a complete paradigm shift. Companies would have to embrace it, work with staggered shifts, hell, it may not even work at all. People might have to be paid less. Companies would have to hire more people (actually that's probably a plus). But what we switch to is from a society focused on making money, on efficiency, on effectiveness, to a society focused on BEING BETTER. I think that is a really important thing.

Since starting to follow James, I try to improve myself 1% everyday. I don't always do it, sometimes I'm too tired, sometimes I'm too stressed, sometimes I just want to sit and watch TV. But I know when I have time for myself I get restless, I want to do something, I want to get better at something. I think we could all go a long way if we had a little more time to make ourselves better.

How do you make yourself more productive? What are some ways that you "improve 1% every day"? I'd love to hear your stories!