17. Why Most People Don’t Want to Work a 4-Day Work Week

Have you ever had one of those vacations that just went way too long? You were excited to go on the vacation when you started and to be off work. But then at some point, things shifted. You became bored, or you didn't like where you were, or you weren't enjoying yourself. And at some point, you found yourself almost cringing at the thought that you knew you'd rather be back in your normal routine or back at work. One of the main reasons people don't work a four day work week is they've not figured out what they want to do outside of their normal schedule that's going to really excite them. This is not said to be an insult or a put down. Most of us have experienced boredom. That might be the biggest challenge or epidemic of this time in human history. We have the majority of our basic needs met in many parts of the world, certainly not in all parts of the world. But for those of us who do, there's this sense of not knowing what to do next because everything's taken care of. Similarly, if you don't know what you're going to do with your Friday and you're an entrepreneur and you're even allowed to take that Friday off and Friday comes around and you've not planned something that's awesome to do or something that inspires you or excites you, the inertia, the habits of your normal schedule are going to creep in and pretty soon you might find yourself back at your desk, or if you work with other people, you might find yourself back at the office almost either apologizing or justifying your existence in the business and saying, Yeah, see, I'm here.

And yet, when we have awesome vacations to look forward to or great things coming up, very often we can be hyper productive right before that, go on our vacation, have a lot of fun, enjoy it, and come back and be productive again, well rested, well prepared to get back and engage. What this requires is for you to come up with what is it you're going to do that's going to be so awesome on a Friday that you don't want to be at work. Not because work is bad, work can be awesome. But there's seven days in a week. You don't have to have five or six or seven to be filled with work. There's other things you can do. What I suggest you do, if you go to 4daytools. Com, we have a spreadsheet tool which you can print out or type in that will help you come up with what are the things you would do if you had 50 Fridays off? I f in the next year you could take off roughly every Friday, what would you do with that time? Until you start thinking about that, you're probably not going to start taking time off.

It doesn't have to be 50 unique things. I happen to like playing beach volleyball. I'm there just about every Friday I can if the weather is good. I live in a part of the world where that's possible. But if you're not sure what you're going to do or you haven't come up with something better, you're going to go back to your default. If work is the most engaging and exciting thing going on in your world, that's where you're going to go to. For those of you all who are saying, but, wait, no, no, no, hold on, wait, I'm a hustler. See, I hustle, wade. I like to work a lot of this, that, that's it. That's cool. Everybody's got their journey, their path. I've got a wife and kids right now. I'm not single. I have different responsibilities. And so life pulls me back home in a good way to experience different sides and pieces and parts of life. But even if you're hustling, I encourage you to consider, what if you had that proverbial hundred million dollars in the bank? What would you be doing with your schedule? That doesn't mean that's your life work, but that's at least your most desired lifestyle.

And so if you're saying, Well, wait, if I had that much money in the bank, well, I'd go travel or I'd go do this or do that. Great. Start doing that here and there. Take a month off, take two months off, take a couple of days off, whatever it might be. In my case, I like Fridays off. Hope you find this helpful. If you have any questions, let me know. As always, I look forward to helping you make more money in less time. Do what you do best. Thanks.