5in4: #5in4 the first week – IB

Gambia just announced that the whole country will work a 4 day week as if to confirm that #5in4′ plugs into the Zeitgeist. The excitement of starting a shorter woke me up so that here I am at 4 am.

I am thinking about what I will do with my Fridays. A day of’ taking in’ rather then’ churning out’. I am imagining getting up only to make food and cups of coffee. I am imagining reading 6 Degrees by Mark Lynas, ‘Engaging with Climate Change‘ by Sally Weintrope and ‘The Craftsman’ by Richard Sennett all at the same time , all in one day.and remembering what I read. I am imagining watching the backlog of Ted Talks , browsing through my Flipboard app , reading Building Design, the Guardian and last week’s Observer. I imagine tweeting about it as I go along and finally learning what LinkedIn is all about.

Meanwhile a letter has arrived to confirm that we have been shortlisted for a very nice (paid) competition and that the briefing session is on…………..FRIDAY !

Tuesday

Spirits are high at 7.30 in the morning- most of us chose early start over a late finish.

We are also beginning to clamp down on unnecessary meetings. We have saved 16 hours of work just yesterday by not attending meetings where we could not add real value- we sorted what needed to be sorted on the phone instead. We also calculated a saving of £8 per week on Friday coffee/milk and Yorkshire Post!