Why we should work four-hour days like Darwin and Dickens

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. At the same time, we’re hearing more and more about other countries where employees work fewer hours than Brits but are much more productive - it sounds too good to be true. We’ve been told that we procrastinate too much and spend too much work-time on Facebook, and studies have shown that shorter working days actually encourage employees to work more efficiently. “Decades of research demonstrate that the correlation between the number of hours worked and productivity is very weak,” argues Silicon Valley consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. And these aren’t the only historical figures who achieved great successes whilst working short days - Thomas Mann, G H Hardy and Edna O’Brien did too, according to Pang.