Shrinking weekends

So really. If I were to take care of my house, my errands and my DIY to do list each weekend, I wouldn't have time to eat, let alone relax. That could very well be why, embarrassingly, I haven't cleaned (you know, REALLY cleaned) my kitchen in likely a year or so. Yikes. It literally took me about 6 hours over two days to get it done, and even then, we have decided to use some of our hard earned money to get new burner thingies for the stove. I mean, really, that seems like a damn good investment to me, over spending another hour or so with cleaning gloves and those blue-gummy SOS pads. Do I not deserve a little downtime on weekends? I do, dammit.

But hey...now the kitchen is clean for another year, right??? My Mom is rolling over in Arizona...

But back to the shrinking weekend title here. Two days is never enough. I discussed this with coworkers and others last week - the discussion was this: Would we not get the same amount of work done with a shorter a) work week or b) work day - and by this I mean working 5 hours days over 7.5? I truly believe that if I was at work for a nice, tight 5 hours, I would work hard and focused for 5 hours, and be happy to be there, then be happy that I had more time in my day for balance.

I also come at this remembering a great story from my childhood, when my father won a commendation award at the Air Base in Edmonton because he spearheaded a fitness challenge base-wide, which allowed participants to take an extra 1/2 hour each lunch (so 1.5 hours for lunch) and play organized sports happening all over the base. They had to participate, otherwise they didn't get the extra time, but all told, productivity among those working less time in a day ROSE 40%.

So...what do you think? Let's propose to get our same salary for 12 hours less of work a week. Think it'll fly?