Futurist forecasts how we’ll be working four-hour days within just 30 years

Work. It’s a subject that unites us all. But have you ever wondered where the standard 9-5 that governs our every day came from? Or where it’s headed?

A new report created by acclaimed futurist James Wallman and Yell, reveals a positive view on how working lives will look by the year 2050, thanks to a wave of new technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality and the internet of things. The results are intriguing, with the most prominent being the ‘Four Hour Working Day’.

The current work day was set up to squeeze as much as possible out of workers when they performed routine tasks in factories and offices. Emerging research suggests that 8-hour days are a suboptimal way to work – the optimum is far closer to 4 hours per day. As robots and ‘cobots’ perform more of the routine tasks, humans will become more creative. And the best way to be creative is to work around four hours per day. This radical change will also have huge benefits on our health and wellbeing, as well as balancing family life.

A prediction sure to excite workers around the world, Yell took the notion of a four-hour working day and asked three innovative entrepreneurs for their thoughts on how this might impact them and their working lives.