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by Joe Ryle (Author)
Improve productivity and staff loyalty with a four-day week
'The best guide to increasing your, and most other adults', leisure time by 50%. With no serious downside.' Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
The workweek was designed for a different era - one with slower communication, fewer meetings, and far less digital noise. Today, many of us work longer hours yet feel less finished: inbox overload, constant pings, endless status calls, and the creeping sense that life is happening after work. The 4 Day Week Handbook is a practical, elegant guide to building a four-day work week (and a calmer mind) by working smarter, not harder-through focus, systems, and results.
This is not a fantasy manifesto. It's a step-by-step actionable playbook for creating a 32-hour workweek that still delivers exceptional outcomes. Whether you're an employee who wants Fridays back, a manager redesigning team performance, or an entrepreneur aiming to scale without burnout, you'll learn how to compress work into fewer days by eliminating low-value activity, improving execution, and protecting deep work.
Inside, you'll discover how to:
- Diagnose where your time actually goes and identify the hidden "leaks" that steal hours
- Apply Pareto thinking (the 80/20 rule) to responsibilities, clients, projects, and meetings
- Replace busywork with a simple productivity system built around priorities, outcomes, and energy
- Use time blocking, batching, and calendar design to create uninterrupted focus and flow
- Reduce meetings with clear agendas, decision rules, and asynchronous communication
- Streamline email and messaging so your day isn't ruled by notifications
- Maintain momentum with measurable goals, lightweight metrics, and practical accountability
- Create a pilot plan to propose a flexible schedule, hybrid work arrangement, or compressed hours
A four-day workweek isn't one "productivity hack," it's an operating system: attention management, boundary setting, energy management, and clear project management. This handbook helps you translate big ideas - efficiency, focus, goal setting, and work-life balance - into daily routines that hold up in real life: a crowded calendar, shifting priorities, and people who expect instant replies.
At its heart, the book helps you switch from "hours" to "outcomes." A four-day week is defined by results, not presence.
Buy the book and start innovating
