Work Hours & Activity vs Productivity: Optimization Tactics

You know that feeling when someone’s talking to you, and you hear them, but you're not really listening? Well, work hours vs. productivity can be the same way.

Work hours are not necessarily equal to productive hours.

In fact, the relationship between working hours and productivity is rather complex.

You might be sitting at your desk, staying busy, but not truly being productive.

Maybe you’re staring at a screen, reading the news, shopping online, playing games, texting, doom scrolling on social media, and so on. Or perhaps you’re dragging out tasks due to poor concentration, having too many meetings, or chit-chatting with co-workers.

So, technically, you can be physically present at work but not really there in spirit. 🙂

But is being unproductive that bad?

Should your employer expect you to give 100% of your focus during each minute of your eight-hour shift? Is that even possible or realistic?

In this article, we dive into the work hours vs. productivity debate. We’ll give you a brief history lesson on working hours, explore four-day workweeks, and discuss flexible working schedules. At the end of the post, you’ll find our top five tips to help make your hours more productive, no matter how your work schedule looks.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

The history behind working eight hours per day, five days a week

Here’s a highly abbreviated history lesson on how the world accepted an eight-hour workday.

Back in the 19th century, the mid-1800s, working 70+ hours, six days per week, was a norm. People were clocking in 12 hours per day. In some countries, the number of work hours was even higher. In the US, for example, at the end of World War I, blast furnace workers in the steel industry typically logged 84 hours per week.

It all changed in 1926 when Henry Ford, the owner of the Ford Motor Company, instituted an eight-hour-a-day, five-day workweek. This idea caught on and is still in use today.

The first mention of the six-hour workweek (in the US)

Just three years after Ford established an eight-hour workday, the US faced the Great Depression, which led to high unemployment. That’s how the idea for a six-hour workweek was born.

In 1930, Will Keith Kellogg, an American industrialist in food manufacturing, decided to implement the six-hour shifts with a slight reduction in the workers’ pay.

After introducing the reduced work hours to his company, Kellog decided to institute the six-hour workday. His suggestion passed in the Senate but failed in the House. So, by the late 1950s, most employees were working eight hours, though some, mostly women, continued with the six-hour schedule until the 1980s.

Nearly a hundred years after the Great Depression, both the US and the rest of the world are opening up to the idea of redefining work and finding a better balance between personal and professional life.

Surviving the COVID-19 pandemic put things in perspective, so it’s safe to say that the six-hour workday is back on the table again. But this time, it’s served with a new side dish: the four-day workweek.

The four-day workweek

In 2024, people are looking for a more condensed schedule. That’s why major companies, like Buffer, Panasonic and Kickstarter, have already joined the four-day workweek movement.

But is this movement just a trendy idea? Does it have any practical value?

Well, according to Charlotte Lockhart, co-founder of 4 Day Week Global—a foundation that helps businesses transition to a four-day workweek—the movement is based on a simple “100-80-100 rule”.

In an interview with Time Magazine, she explained that the rule suggests that employees can achieve 100% of their productivity targets while working 80% of the hours and earning 100% of their pay.

Does a four-day workweek actually work?

According to the statistics from the United Kingdom, shorter workweeks help employees manage stress better, get more sleep, reduce burnout, and find a better work/life balance, all leading to a healthier lifestyle.

However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

A four-day workweek is not everyone’s cup of tea, and here’s the proof.

A 2022 Gallup survey viewed the four-day workweek through a collection of wellbeing data and employee engagement factors. Here are the results:

• Employees who work six days a week had the highest rates of burnout.
• Those working five days a week had the highest engagement and lowest burnout rates.
• Workers performing four-day workweeks had higher burnout rates than those who worked five days per week.

Moreover, remote workers tend to be less engaged and immersed in the company culture compared to on-site employees. Therefore, offering flexible working schedules can help keep remote workers motivated.

But what about employee productivity vs. hours worked?

Let’s check the stats once again.

A UK study of 2,000 full-time office workers found that the average employee spent two hours and 53 minutes working a day, reporting that social media, news, and personal calls had significant negative effects on productive hours during the day. What’s even more shocking is that 54% of those surveyed workers said those distractions made their working days “more bearable”.

Looking at productivity challenges on a larger scale, we can consult the Economic Research Council and its pre-pandemic study from 2019. This study aimed to see if working fewer hours could lead to higher productivity. The study found that workers were more satisfied with their jobs when they had more and longer breaks during the workday.

Moreover, this study is particularly interesting because it provides a chart with annual hours worked vs. productivity in the UK.

The average annual hours worked is a per-worker measure and shows that the average hours worked per week declined from 40 to just above 30 between 1950 and 2014. The chart also included Total Factor Productivity, a three-factor measure of productivity that accounts for labor, capital, and technological changes.

The study revealed that:

• When employees experience wage stagnation, they reduce their work hours as a response to that stagnation.
• Unexpectedly, if workers’ wages decrease, they will do anything to keep up with their previous standard of living, even increasing their working hours.

Based on these studies, we can conclude the following:

• Companies can’t expect workers to stay focused for their entire eight-hour shifts.
• Taking longer and more frequent breaks actually increases productivity.
• Workers need time for personal calls and handling personal matters.
• Working longer hours depends on wage increases or decreases.

Looking at performance vs. productivity from a bird's-eye view, we have to mention that many non-traditional workers can work 50 or 60 hours a week (like consultants) in an industry where they need to engage directly with other people.

Workers who participate in the gig economy, like freelancers, can be more flexible with their time, ultimately boosting their productivity and efficiency. This means that flexible working hours and productivity go like peanut butter and jelly.

Does this mean that the higher productivity, the shorter working hours?

It might. Perhaps the answer depends on where you live. 🤷

According to Venngage, in about 60 years, productivity in the US has increased by over 261%, but the average working hours have only dropped by 11%. With the lowest number of vacation and holiday days per worker—just about 20 days—US workers should, in theory, be working around 19 hours per week (considering their productivity levels).

But there is a country whose working hours have decreased in line with productivity: Germany.

Since 1950, Germany has worked 44% fewer hours per year, as German workers rely on one rule: as productivity goes up, working hours should go down. Additionally, German workers enjoy 43 vacation days.

So, as Germany proved, there is a way to be productive without overworking.

No matter if you work remotely as a freelancer, clock 60+ hours a week as a partner in a big law firm, or anything in between, there’s a way to make your work hours more productive without working longer. You, too, can work smarter, not harder.

Tips for maximizing productivity

Whether you are considering a four-day workweek or just want to optimize your standard 9-5, here are five quick tips to help you maximize productivity.

#1 Focus on clear goal-setting and effective time management

Without goals, productivity hits the pause button.

If you want to boost productivity, you need to be clear each day about your goals. Set realistic, deadline-driven objectives to measure and achieve within a specific time frame. In other words, set SMART goals.

But all your goals won’t be worth much if you don’t manage time well. If time slips through your hands, your carelessness and inaction won’t help you achieve your goals.

That’s where time management tactics come in, and in that regard, I have to mention Memtime. Because to manage your time, you first need to measure it.

And if you know anything about our tool, you know it’s an app that captures all your activity throughout the day, without needing to start or stop a timer.

But Memtime isn’t just a background timekeeper—it’s your productivity buddy, as it can help you view your total captured time and the billable work time一the hours you logged as project time entries.

Here’s how it works:

In the app, go to the top corner and click “Reporting”. Scroll down a bit to the “Productivity” section, where you’ll see the Captured Time and Work Time graph. Just like this:

Using Memtime reports when trying to maximize your productivity shows you exactly how much “work time” you’ve logged, allowing you to reassess your activities with Memtime’s automatic timeline. You’ll know how productive you are throughout the day and where your attention goes the most. It really doesn’t get better than this. 🙂

Want to see your time reports with just one click? Give Memtime a chance with our 2-week free trial. Simply create an account, download the app, and you’re good to go!

#2 Shift mindset towards deliverables

Once you are aware of goals and where your work time goes, you can start shifting your mindset towards delivering output instead of “putting in the hours”.

When you start thinking about tasks rather than time, you'll find yourself more concentrated and less distracted, leading to faster and more efficient results.

Memtime fully supports your task-oriented approach; all you need to do is work as you normally would, and the tool will show you how much time you spend on each task.

#3 Start a trial program

Maximizing productivity can mean having shorter workdays, workweeks or just allocating your time differently (e.g. working three days then taking a break and continuing to work on the weekends).

However you view “being more productive” is okay. But before you commit to a new working schedule, make it a trial program.

When introducing a trial period, you will be able to identify blocks on the road during that time and develop ways to mitigate those challenges. So, gradually ease into your new routine, making steady progress toward better productivity.

#4 Automate tasks

If you want to focus on more complex tasks that require your undivided attention, learn to automate repetitive tasks.

Introduce new tools or processes一whatever you need一to ensure that the same ol’ tasks that take away your focus are not there to mess with your deep work.

#5 Avoid meeting creep

Attending most meetings seems… pointless.

It doesn’t promote your creativity, nor does it boost productivity.

It stops you from focusing on deep work.

Not to mention, if you don’t schedule breaks between meetings, your brain will experience such distress that you won’t be able to focus during those meetings.

To help you fight meeting creep like a Terminator, we wrote an article on reducing meeting overload so be sure to check it out. And you’ll see, when you implement the tips from the post, there will be no 2-hour meetings or annoying colleagues ready to “add just one more thing” at the end of your calls.

Final thoughts on activity vs. productivity

So, there you have it! From the historical lessons of the workweek to this century’s productivity trends and movements, we can agree productivity isn’t about clocking in hours but about achieving (meaningful) results.

Productivity is all about working smarter, not harder.

When trying to maximize productivity, do the following:

Try out these tips to discover which ones work best for you.

Good luck, and happy optimizing!