Weekends & Productivity

My latest management experiment at Peach is the two-day weekend.

I have always wondered how people in the US and other developed countries, despite working just five days a week, deliver amazing output, at very predictable speeds.  I do realize that better education, superior management, different social traditions, etc. may be more influential in bringing about this efficiency; however, I have a feeling that a two-day weekend also plays a good role in improving productivity.  And, in fact, I feel that a two-day weekend is more necessary here in India than elsewhere, given our cultural tendencies.

I believe a weekend is supposed to be a break for us from the daily work routine.  The break should give us time to relax, reflect, and recharge ourselves for the next week.

Now I guess a typical professional here uses a one-day weekend to contribute at home (which is obviously tough on weekdays given exhausting work hours and the daily commute), spending time with family, buying groceries, eating out, repairing breakdowns in the house.  Add to that our countless social events - marriages, birthdays, engagements ("ring ceremonies"), katha, mundan, besna, what not...  In four months of the year, hardly a weekend goes by without a marriage to attend (btw today I have to attend two).  Now, a weekend is also the only opportunity we have to meet friends, cuz they're also lost in their careers.

Many of us manage to squeeze these priorities in a Sunday, but at a high cost - I find people more exhausted on Mondays (that's when I have maximum absences - we call it "Monday fever") than even on Saturdays.  Forget about getting relaxed and recharged for a new week.  Forget about reflecting on the week, and introspecting how we can do better, or learning something new.  Nope, it only adds to our exhaustion.

My hypothesis is that the two-day weekend more than doubles the effectiveness of a weekend.  And we deliver better output in a five-day week than in a six-day week (assuming, of course, that people are sincere).

I believe so because the two-day weekend is clearly more than sufficient to handle family priorities, social occasions, and fun plans.  We get so much time that we're forced to relax or think up work.  And that is the type of time we need for learning, enriching ourselves, and planning ahead.  Even an hour of sitting on the swing doing nothing, or a lazy afternoon nap, recharges us, as it erases the exhaustion of the previous week from our minds.

Work is also unlikely to suffer because people come refreshed on Monday, well-prepared for the week ahead.  Sincere professionals have time to simulate their priorities before they come.  As that they had enough time to handle personal and family priorities in the two-day weekend, they can focus on work without getting distracted.

I have initiated two-day weekends (on even Saturdays) at Peach, and intend to observe the difference in productivity in my own self and in my colleagues during the odd and even weeks.  This was the first such weekend, and I personally feel very rejuvenated, and am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.  I hope that more of us feel the same way....