Cambridge Business Association
Thursday is the New Friday
Book

Thursday is the New Friday

How to Work Fewer Hours, Make More Money, and Spend Time Doing What You Want

Joe Sanok
HarperCollins Leadership, 2021
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The five-day workweek is a social construct – but one that’s firmly entrenched in the collective psyche. This remnant of a bygone era is ripe for change, argues mental health professional Joe Sanok. He contends that by taking control of your schedule and adapting how you spend your time to better match how your brain works, you’ll be more productive and less stressed. Sanok offers a history of the standard five-day, 40-hour workweek and explains why it’s a recipe for burnout. He provides specific tools and tactics to work more effectively and, in so doing, to enjoy a happier, healthier life. 

Summary

The five-day workweek is an obsolete remnant of the Industrial Age.

Unlike the 24-hour day or the 365-day year, the seven-day week is a social construct: No natural phenomenon occurs every seven days. A year could just as easily comprise 73 five-day weeks. When the Babylonians invented the seven-day week, the rest of the world followed suit. In 1926, Henry Ford popularized the five-day workweek, though its roots reach back to 1886, when labor unions protested for safer working conditions at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. 

The industrialist movement that aimed to optimize systems while cutting costs viewed workers as cogs in a machine. Workers, lured by improving workplace conditions and the promise of stability, conformed to this perspective. Until COVID-19’s mandatory lockdowns, working onsite from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days per week, was the status quo. However, new research shows that working remotely, in many cases, increases productivity and job satisfaction.

The consequences of working long, rigid hours can be detrimental to individuals’ health, sleep and relationships. Technology that enables people to work around...

About the Author

Joe Sanok is a mental health professional and the host of The Practice of the Practice podcast. He is the founder of Slow Down School and Killin’ It Camp, as well as a business consultant and speaker.

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