Free Do Less by Rachel Jonat Page A

a new project.
Change Your Hours or Work from Home
    Changing your work hours and working from home are two simple ways to work less. If you have a long commute that doubles during rush hour, request an earlier or later start so that you can reduce your driving time to increase your living time. Ideally this shift in work hours plays into your natural strengths, such as an early start if you’re a morning person, or a later start if one of your goals is to have a relaxed morning of personal time before work.
    An important piece to remember when negotiating different working arrangements and schedules is that a lot of employers don’t have experience with these requests. If anything, people want to work
more
these days. You may be a maverick in the company! For the arrangement to be successful and beneficial for both you and your employer, you should approach it gradually and thoughtfully.
    At first, you may want to ask for something small, like working from home two days a month. If you have a thirty-minute commute to work, this change alone can give you the equivalent of three extra days off a year with no loss of salary. In addition to that extra time, you’ll also save on commuting costs. Although it might seem frustrating to start with such a small request, there are still big lifestyle and financial gains to be made with just a small change in your work arrangements.
    When you ask to work from home two days a month, offer a trial basis of three months. This is especially important if flexible work arrangements aren’t common at your workplace. The goal of this trial period is to impress your manager with the benefits to the company so that he or she is open to other flexible work arrangements down the road. Use the ideas in the Work Smarter section to be very productive during the trial period of your new work schedule. A flexible work arrangement hinges on employer/employee trust, so treat your new privileges with the same professionalism you would the rest of your job. If you successfully negotiate working from home, resist taking a work-at-home day outside of the set schedule. This respect for the freedom you are being given will go a long way in creating the trust needed for successful flexible work arrangements.
Reduce Work Hours
    Reducing work hours is the next obvious step to working less. One relatively easy change if you work shifts is to ask to reduce your hours and, in the interim, offer one of your shifts to a coworker who needs extra money. (Many people are looking to work more, not less, because they have bills to pay and so much stuff they want to buy. When you, however, decide to Do Less, you are freeing yourself of that all-consuming need to work more and more.)
    If you are in a salaried position, rather than hourly or shift work, take a hard look at your workload:
Can your job truly be done in four days instead of five without the loss of hours impacting the quality of your work?
Could you ask to work four longer days instead of five traditional workdays?
Could you telecommute one day a week?
If your job can’t be condensed, think of tasks that could easily be shared or shifted to a coworker or perhaps into a new role.
Keep your eyes and ears open for colleagues who are also looking for flexible work arrangements or anyone eager to take on more responsibility and projects. A colleague interested in working fewer hours could become a valuable ally for job sharing.
Strategies for Negotiating with Your Company
    When you sit down to discuss your desired work arrangement with your manager, come prepared with a list of the benefits to the employer rather than the benefits to yourself. You’ll need to prove that working less is in the company’s favor, rather than just part of your own plan to create more time for yourself.
    If at first you don’t succeed in reducing your work hours, be patient. It may not be the right time for your employer, but you can still use the ideas in the