The 3-Day Weekend is Inevitable

Last week was Labor Day weekend and it was great. Adding that extra day to the weekend does something big. I took a day trip, worked on hobbies, socialized and worked on my side projects. I could feel myself living a second life, extending my consciousness and becoming more of a multidimensional human being. I never felt like that on our regular 2-day weekend schedule.

That’s because having three days off in a row isn’t just adding another day; it allows a person to live a double life, sort of like Tom Ripley.

Right now. We actually don’t have a 2-day weekend, we have a one day weekend. That day is Saturday. Think about it. By Friday, you’re already burnt out from work, maybe you go out, but you’re rushing, dragging the weight of the week behind you. And Sunday? By the afternoon, work starts creeping into your head, taking over. Saturday is all we have to live another life. If you look around, most of us have enough stuff in our lives, what is a real luxury is to extend our depth of living. 3 day weekends are actually what weekends are supposed to feel like.

I think the permanent 3-day weekend should be the goal. Unfortunately, we’re addicted to work. We’re locked into a system where we work—and sleep—for 16 out of 24 hours (66%), five out of seven days (71%), eleven out of twelve months (91%), give or take.

It’s not a radical proposal. The economy won’t collapse. We’ve already seen this concept tested recently with promising results:

• Microsoft Japan's trial of a four-day workweek in 2019 showed a 40% boost in productivity

• 61 companies in the UK took a 6 month trial of the 4 day workweek and 90 percent of the companies are doing it again for another year because of the success.

People Are Already Checked out on Fridays

We’re already inching closer to that goal already. We just need to make it official. Just take a look at Fridays now. Glance around your office on Fridays. People are slower, there is more conversation, more web browsing. Less meetings.

People are physically at work, but mentally? They're already gone. And we’re all ok with it. Pre-Covid, Friday was still a legit workday. Now, it’s basically a formality.

The Future Will Not Be Remote

The future was supposed to be remote, remember zoom towns? But that future never happened. In 2020, 80% of jobs went remote. By 2023, that number’s down to 9%, with another 40% doing hybrid setup. What happened? Employers didn’t want to commit to fully remote. They had leases on real estate, they had trust issues with letting employees be home, they thought the corporate work culture required people in the chair. So, everyone caved and went hybrid.

You can still see some societal affects from the hybrid schedule. For example, the popularity of golf is taking off.

But the story didn’t end there. The inevitable change in work schedules will happen because the people who are working are changing. You can see drastic generational change now. New things are possible.

champagnecruz

496K followers

View more on Instagram

In This Newsletter

Let’s say we do switch to a permanent 3-day weekend.

1) The Five Ways How a Permanent 3-Day Weekend Could Transform You

• You’ll Have More Memories

• You’ll Build A Parallel Life and Create a New Identity

• You’ll be Healthier

• You’ll Have More Babies

• Micro Adventures Will Become Normal

2) What’s Wrong With Other Alternative Work Schedules? Other alternative work schedule proposals are inferior to the permanent 3-day weekend.

The Permanent 3-Day Weekend Will Change Everything

1) More Memories

Creating new memories fights existential boredom, the feeling that life lacks purpose or excitement. By actively seeking out new memories, we are not merely marking time but creating life that is felt deeply. This allows us to expand our "lived" time, so even if the years go by at the same pace, we feel we’ve lived longer, fuller lives

Our current work schedule makes life feel monotonous to the point where we lose the sense of actually having memories. Do you feel that life is flying by? It’s not about getting old, it’s about being put on a certain schedule.

The average person has little room for novel experiences—especially those that push us out of our comfort zones—slow down our perception of time and make life more memorable. Do novel things in your life, at literally any age, and you will remember them very well, and the feeling of how much time passes will change dramatically.

Parents can feel this. Up all night with a newborn? Those first couple of years feel like a long time. Parents never forget those years. We are adding decades of life felt.

Having an extra day increases the likelihood that people will use the time for new, stimulating experiences—like travel, creative projects, or learning new skills. These novel activities help slow down the perception of time, making life feel richer and more memorable.

2) You’ll Become Healthier

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.