How We Designed a 4-day Work Week at Viscera Studio
It has been almost a year since we switched to a 4-day workweek at Viscera Studio. We’ve found this shift has been good for us as people and in turn, good for us as a company. Initially, we switched to a 4-day workweek because we’re a team of creative people, and nurturing creativity requires both space and time. We need time to dive into new topics, time to practice and develop new skills, and time to explore new ideas. It requires the space to rest and recharge to allow our minds to wander and make new connections – if you’ve ever had a brilliant idea come to you in the shower or on your morning commute, you know what we’re talking about.
Over time, we found that it’s not only beneficial for us as a company, but for our clients and partners, too, because we show up differently. As the old saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup. When our team is well-rested, we generate better ideas more quickly, develop creative solutions, and communicate more clearly (i.e. responding rather than reacting).
Here are our key takeaways from shifting to a 4-day workweek:
Be more deliberate: Time is our most valuable (and limited) asset and we work to treat it that way. Since our working hours are cut down by 20% it means our time is that much more valuable. We work to avoid having meetings when an email would do, and when we have meetings, agendas are a must to keep us focused and on task. It also means we take the time to document processes and plan for future process improvements.
No ego necessary: It’s human nature to take up as much time as we’re given on a task. When we give ourselves a smaller container, it requires us to be more discerning about our work and in turn helps us create better quality work. Rather than dwelling on a ‘meh’ or ‘okay’ idea, we let our ego go and nix the idea quickly and move on so we can find that great idea!
Focus on effectiveness: At the end of the day, our clients care if we produce quality work, not how long it took or how much we suffered or struggled in the process. Creating great work requires focused and uninterrupted time. That great idea isn’t found in the time confetti between meetings. To ensure we have the focus time needed both on ideation and production, we have a heads-down day once a week where we all get the important work done.
I’ll be honest, when we made this switch I was a bit nervous because hustle culture tells us that we have to grind and sacrifice to ring out every last bit of productivity if we want to be successful, but I’ve found it’s not true. We’ve maintained a healthy work-life balance all while significantly growing our business, expanding our team, developing new services, and having fun!
Have you thought about switching to a 4-day work week?
If you have questions on how we made the switch or just want to talk about the creative process, reach out!