Working four hours a day? The most productive solution

Four hours of work is the exact number that allows you to maximize your work performance.

Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous

How many hours of serious and continuous work are you able to do each day? Not to mention the passages on social networks, coffee breaks, arranging the diary, stationery and so on.

We are talking about intellectual work, an activity that requires a certain amount of concentration and that involves your creativity. It doesn't matter if you are an art director, lawyer, scientific researcher or space engineer, the answer will not be simple and obvious: it depends. Four hours of work it is the exact number that allows the maximum of your working performances.

This is the thesis supported by Alex Pang in his book Rest: why you get more done when you work less, commented by Oliver Bukerman in an article published in The Guardian.

According to Bukerman, the classic working day, the one that goes from 9 am to 18 pm (with an hour or half hour of lunch break) is just a remnant of the industrial revolution that has nothing to do with the work of the today, which requires completely different knowledge, concentration and skills.

He also cites in support of his thesis the habits of the greatest geniuses of science, Albert Einstein for example slept at least 10 hours a day, took a nap and loved to take walks of 5 km; Charles Darwin, on the other hand, worked only in two blocks of ninety minutes in the morning and another hour later.

The point is not that the world would be a better place if no one felt compelled to work for long, but that in any minimally creative work, a culture that does not allow for rest is doomed to defeat, even if only with regard to the final results. To develop a job that activates even a small part of our creative abilities, the brain needs rest, a very difficult goal to reach given the pace of this hectic life we ​​lead today.

On the other hand, even Adam Smith, the father of modern economics argued that a man who works with moderation and constancy, not only keeps his health but, over the course of the year, will be able to complete a greater amount of work.

What do you think of it? What would your ideal working hours be?