How does two weekends a week sound?

...this is what Happened When I Stopped Working on Thursdays.

Prefer to listen? find it here [ 20 minutes].

How do I actually switch off?

I’ve always been fairly disciplined about finishing on time. My challenge was more subtle than that. My creative brain doesn’t get the memo. Ideas arrive mid-swim, mid-walk, mid-dinner.

The work doesn’t follow me; my thinking about it does.

And whilst I’d never want to lose that quality entirely, I was curious whether there was a way to create more genuine mental space. So when the opportunity arose to take part in a trial with the University of Sussex of the four-day working week, I said yes.

I was interested on several levels. As a participant, a coach, and an independent researcher exploring wellbeing and resilience, I was intrigued by the claims being made about the impact of shorter working weeks. And as someone who is self-employed, running my own business, I had something many people don’t: the freedom to actually try it.

From September to December 2025, I worked four days a week for twelve consecutive weeks. Every Friday evening, I completed a survey about my life, personal and professional. Being university led, these surveys comprised existing reliable, valid surveys, so I knew it would be robust findings.

When I chatted to people about it, they assumed Friday would be the day to take off, however, to their surprise, I chose Thursday. This was deliberate. I already use Tuesdays as my ‘creative and administrative’ day, so Thursday felt like the right counterbalance. A day that would genuinely re-energise me going into Friday, which has always been one of my busiest days. Coaches tend to book supervision and continuing development on Fridays; it’s the day that suits them. I wondered, could I arrive into it with more in the tank.

It’s worth being clear that Thursday work just stopped. No compressed hours. No relying on an assistant to absorb the overflow. No alternating weeks that blur the boundaries anyway. Just one full day, reclaimed, every week, for three months.

It had been tough towards the end of the trial, for a number of reasons, leaving me even more eager to dive in when the results arrived!

I had found the off switch

Initially, I’ll admit, I spent time wondering what on earth I would do with a free Thursday. Even asking, how will I fill it (oh how I laugh at that now!).

The results came in, showing that the trial had enabled a 39% improvement in ‘psychological detachment’. This is the scientific term for switching off from work.

Thirty. Nine. Percent.

I hadn’t noticed this happening. I’d just been feeling better, despite those tough weeks towards the trial end. There was no single moment where I thought, ‘I’ve cracked it, I’ve switched off’. The change was subtle. Seeing it in writing, quantified in the final report created a kind of curious recognition. Something had shifted. The data was confirming what my nervous system had already clocked. Research supports what was unfolding too: the ability to mentally disengage from work is one of the strongest predictors of mental health and resilience. Meta-analytic evidence from Wendsche & Lohmann-Haislah (2017) shows that psychological detachment is consistently associated with lower strain and better wellbeing.

Yes, there was a settling-in period, a few weeks of working out what genuine rest actually looked like when it wasn’t a weekend. I got on top of life admin to begin with, and it felt good to ‘clear the decks’.

Gradually, I found my rhythm. Long dog walks. Cycle rides. Meet-Ups that weren’t squeezed into a lunch hour. A beach sauna. A dip in the sea. It had a real feeling and sense of a mid-week mini-holiday. Being able to drop into that regularly was incredibly refreshing.

I felt nourished and reinvigorated (and that wasn’t ALL from the cold water dip!).

That reclaimed Thursday created a psychological boundary I hadn’t known I needed quite so much. It wasn’t completely easy. I had to be disciplined. There were days when, had I not been part of the trial, I might have ‘quickly checked the email’s’. I stuck with it though, fighting that inner critic of being self-indulgent (!). I truly did notice that having a genuine break mid-week meant I arrived into Friday with more energy. Fridays became noticeably more productive as a result. There was a focus to how I worked on those days that I hadn’t experienced in the same way before.

The tension eased

In my new 4 day working week, the improvement could equate to dropping a whole day of stress! It dropped by 25%. Stress and pressure are words worth pausing on here, because they cover a wide range of experiences. Consistent excess pressure results in stress.

There was no chronic stress in my working life before the trial, I want to be clear about that. I thought I was pretty good at ‘stopping’ when I felt too much pressure. Though, what I’d normalised without realising it, was a low-grade tension that accumulates when you never quite fully stop. The kind that lives in the background. And I hadn’t spotted it until, it began to ease.

Emerging research from the study lead; Rae & Rees (2024), writing in Trends in Cognitive Sciences argue that improved performance on a four‑day week comes through two psychological mechanisms: recovery and motivation, rather than simply more time off.

With Thursdays freed up, something structural changed in how I moved through the week. I became more protective of my energy. I said no more readily to things that didn’t contribute to my purpose of being, for my clients. And within my working days, I changed something small but meaningful: I’d always built breaks between coaching sessions, and those breaks had always been mine in theory, but in practice, I was often filling them with other ‘bits of work’. During the trial, I stopped doing that. The breaks reinstated the breathing space. That distinction turned out to matter enormously.

I got interested in the word recovery as I wrote this, and built a new understanding. Pockets of ‘recovery’ from pressures were showing their benefits. It is for ‘me’, but more for those I work with. I believe this interpretation of 'improvement', could be a game-changer for anyone involved in deep work with others.

I now actively step away from the computer immediately after reflecting on the session, move, meditate, re-hydrate. Maybe have a cuddle with the dogs. Their softness is SO calming!

Consciously closing the last client, rest and resetting, before familiarising myself with my next client, I arrive ‘improved’ and ‘better’; more present and ‘clean’ for the next conversation.

Waking up naturally…even on dark mornings!

I have been interested in the power of sleep for a long time, and the evidence base for what impacts sleep is building. I am even exploring the impact of coaching on sleep in my own research. For reference, a study, just last year from Fan et al (2025), covered a multi-country project, and reported on patterns on what impacts sleep: some interventions meant participants were sleeping longer and experiencing fewer sleep difficulties.

I sleep well. Always have. I don’t lie awake problem-solving (unless something really big is going on, like when my Dad was hospitalised!). I have a deep respect for sleep, particularly since reading Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’ many years ago, which makes a compelling case for sleep as the foundation of almost everything we do well.

For me a result of the study? A 25% improvement in sleep quality over the twelve week trial. This was both welcome and interesting to see validated in the trial report. As I reflect now, what I noticed most was the mornings.

Since reading the book, I’ve got up at the same time every day, regardless of, weekday or weekend. But going into the winter months in the UK, when it’s dark and cold, that can feel effortful. The warm bed tucking me in tight.

During the trial, I found I was waking more naturally, actually wanting to get out of bed and do things (even in December!). That, more than any survey response, was how I felt the impact of better sleep. The willingness was back. I felt alert earlier in the day.

I even opened up an 8am Monday morning coaching slot! That became an awesome energy boosting start to the week for both my client and myself.

In coaching sessions, my attention sharpened. I could hold the flow of a conversation more fully, track the threads that matter, be much more present throughout. Creativity improved. And I became less reactive to the small frustrations of daily life at work and at home.

Less really did become more!

Would you believe it if I said that I achieved more in four days than I had been achieving in five? Goal attainment increased by 8% during the trial.

The mechanism is less mysterious than it sounds. Constraint sharpens focus. When you have four days and a full workload, you realise what is really important. You stop tolerating the things that consume time and attention yet don't add value. The things people ask you to do pro bono, meetings that drift, email threads that could have been a five-minute conversation. I picked up the phone more. I became more intentional. I had to be. Every task had to earn its place.

I kept asking myself: ‘what actually matters this week?. The trial required me to set five specific goals for the week, and report on the extent to which I achieved them. I became clearer at exactly what needed to be done for each 'task'. That process, applied consistently, changed what I chose to do, and how easy it was to get started on things.

UK four-day week pilot data from research at 4 Day Week Global found that most organisations maintained or improved productivity when shifting to a shorter week. The pattern, repeated across companies and sectors, points to the same thing: efficiency isn’t fixed it expands when we stop assuming that more time automatically produces more output.

Everyone will have their own way of managing workload. For me? I went ‘analogue’! I now print my diary of the week on a Monday. As a visual processor, I observe what there is space for, set the ‘goals’, and plan where I will complete them. Then it is 'Sharpie Time' as I joyfully choose a funky colour to tick each action as I complete it (oh the satisfaction!).

The print out is a great reminder for me to see what is possible within a week, leaves no decision about the next 'job' and certainly prevents reduces (!) drift and distraction.

Getting on with my own ‘stuff’

I seemed to trust myself more. The data confirmed a 6% increase in self-efficacy, the psychological term for belief in one’s own ability to achieve what one sets out to do. Six percent sounds modest on paper. The lived experience felt bigger.

For a long time, I’d measured my value in part, by my capacity to absorb more clients, more projects, more yes when the more considered answer might have been ‘not right now’.

The four-day week challenged that pattern. Week after week, I finished knowing I’d done work that mattered and I had energy remaining. That accumulated evidence built a steadier, quieter confidence rooted in sustainable rhythm.

That stability showed up in coaching sessions. I spoke with greater clarity. The quality of presence I could offer felt different, more grounded. Research connects self-efficacy with work engagement and better outcomes over time, according to Consiglio et al (2016).

I think that when you keep the promises you make to yourself about rest, boundaries, and priorities, you start to believe you can design your working life, rather than just react to it.

I am also inclined to believe this renewed energy impacted my clients. If we both arrive to a session with that ‘Friday feeling’, depleted of resources, it can only go one way.

I saw it. Clients now arrive for their coaching, and almost ’fuel up’ on the energy I bring. Leaving for their weekends with a new level of vigour.

A different kind of engagement

Work engagement increased by 7%; how absorbed, energised, and committed I felt in my work. I spent less time at work, yet I became more engaged with it. I think that comes back to attention.

Engagement is about the quality of presence you bring, and that quality depends almost entirely on what came before it; the rest, the space, the genuine recovery. When I was carrying low-grade tension and not fully switching off, I still showed up well professionally, but maybe, on reflection, a subtle flatness underneath.

During the trial, that flatness lifted. I arrived a new level of anticipation, in what the day held. I feel like the type of engagement shifted too. Ideas would still pop into my mind when I wasn't 'at work', but I was able to ‘save them’ for a time when I was in ‘work mode’ which was different to feeling obsessed to dive in straight away.

Schaufeli and Bakker’s foundational work on engagement found it’s shaped by job resources and recovery, not by effort alone. More than twenty years on from that research, the evidence keeps pointing in the same direction: give people real space to recover, and they bring more of themselves to the work.

And the overall winner is…

As I look at these impacts together, it is a spiders web of interconnectivity. They feed each other. Pull on one, and it pulls something else. It all matters. There is no specific measure for what I feel. A deepened sense of meaning in myself and the work maybe?

The sacrifice?

There was no sacrifice! Many people might wonder what the impact was on my salary. I track my ‘billable’ hours, therefore was able to compare to the previous year.

No change.

Work less and earn the same!

*OK so sometimes I shift the exact day, but always commit to the full day off in the week.

Now What?

I’m keeping the four-day week. The evidence, and the experience, make a more than persuasive case. But the questions I’m sitting with feel bigger than my own results:

What would it look like if organisations designed working weeks around human recovery?

What might we be accepting as normal when it comes to (poor) wellbeing?

How can leaders support teams when the unspoken message is that busy is best?

Sheela Hobden

www.bluegreencoaching.com

May 2026

I found these results so powerful; I am keen to support other people to adopt the 4-day week. Are you up for it?

If you keep telling yourself it wouldn’t work for you — I’d genuinely love to explore that. It’s usually the most interesting conversation.

Yes, I'd like to explore it!

This reflection is based on my participation in a university-led 4-day week trial. All statistics are drawn from independent research conducted between September and December 2025. For broader reading on the evidence base, the 4 Day Week Global trials are a useful starting point. I’m an executive coach and independent researcher exploring the impact of coaching on resilience and wellbeing. If this resonates or raises questions, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Subscribe for more...

Image appreciation to:

All my own images!

Research referenced in this post

4 Day Week Global - https://www.4dayweek.com/uk-pilot-results

Consiglio, C., Borgogni, L., Di Tecco, C., Schaufeli,W, B. (2016) What makes employees engaged with their work? The role of self-efficacy and employee’s perceptions of social context over time, Career Development International, Volume 21, Issue 2, Pages 125-143, ISSN 1362-0436, https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-03-2015-0045

Fan, W., Schor, J.B., Kelly, O. et al. (2025). Work time reduction via a 4-day workweek finds improvements in workers’ well-being. Natural Human Behaviour 9, 2153–2168. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02259-6

Rae, C, L. and Russell, E. (2025) How can a 4-day working week increase wellbeing at no cost to performance?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Volume 29, Issue 1,Pages 5-7, ISSN 1364-6613, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.10.014

Schaufeli, W, B. and Bakker, A, B. (2004) Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study Journal of Organizational Behavior 25, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248

Wendsche J and Lohmann-Haislah A. (2017) A Meta-Analysis on Antecedents and Outcomes of Detachment from Work. Front. Psychol. 7:2072. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02072

Quick FAQ

Is it really possible to work a four-day week without losing pay?

For some people and sectors, yes. It depends less on job title and more on how much control you have over your time and workload. If you’re employed, your scope to keep pay the same will depend on your organisation’s appetite to experiment and the evidence you bring to that conversation. If you’re self‑employed, there is often more flexibility than you think

What are the real wellbeing benefits of working fewer days?

In my data, the impact landed in several places at once; improvements in Improved Ability to Switch Off (+39%), and Quality of Sleep (+25%), Reduced Stress -25%, Goal Attainment (+8%), Work Engagement (+7%), Self-Efficacy (believe in myself) (+6%), though do refer to studies above for more general results.

How can coaching help me move to a four-day week?

Most of us can name the benefits of working less. The difficulty sits in the gap between knowing and doing. Coaching helps in three main ways:

Clarifying what “less” looks like in your world – not an abstract four‑day week, but the version that fits your role, commitments and values.

Designing and reflecting on practical experiments – for example, mapping workload, testing a non‑working day, creating boundaries with clients or colleagues, and putting simple planning habits in place so the work fits the week, not the other way round.

Working with the stories that get in the way – the “I should be available”, “I’ll lose credibility”, or “it’s self‑indulgent to take a day off” thoughts that tend to surface just as change starts to work.

Contact Sheela Hobden at www.bluegreencoaching.com.