We need to rewire white collar jobs with neuroscience and honest conversations about productivity, efficiency, wellbeing and business competitiveness—topics which are rarely articulated and understood holistically.
Simply put: most of the proverbial puzzle pieces that can improve modern work have already been dropped on the table—but few, if any organizations, attempt to put them together.
Aligning Work with Our Biology
Why isn’t the average workday built around our circadian rhythm? What a silly and yet, brilliant question.
According to Dr. Huberman, a popular Neuroscientist at Stanford, we should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep, and 15-17 hours of awake time.
And during those 15-17 hours of awake time, Dr. Huberman says we are our most lucid and focused in the morning, particularly within the first 4–6 hours of waking.
Obviously, this might be different for some, but generally, most fall into this natural biological rhythm.
There are plenty of ways to enhance focus and boost brain activity, like taking short breaks from work, or getting morning sunlight and movement/exercise to help regulate our circadian rhythms and fire up natural dopamine and cortisol levels.
But I think there’s an honest conversation to be had between business leaders and employees (who are all people, by the way) about how to best structure the workday, and our lives around one inherently unmovable fact: we’re the best versions of ourselves (energetically, creatively, intellectually speaking) for only a few hours a day.
But history says 8 hours?
Studies over the last half century have shown that productivity caps out at eight hours for manual laborers, and even less for "knowledge workers" — those who sit at desks and deal with words and data. These workers generally only churn out about five to six "good, productive hours of hard mental work" a day, says Sara Robinson in Salon. "After six hours, all [the boss has] really got left is a butt in a chair."
So why are most organizations still sticking to the standard 8 hours a day model?
Fear of change, perhaps. There's a legitimate argument against cutting too much time as well, companies need to be profitable and cover operating costs and salaries. There's also a misleading narrative that this work schedule (8 hours; 9-5), is the best we’ve produced in history.
Even during the end of the Industrial Revolution, there’s evidence that six-hour shifts created by famous cereal baron, W.K. Kellogg, had notable success, before they were eventually phased out in the 80s.
Rarely though, do thought leaders reference what it was like before the Industrial Revolution—a time when Medieval laborers had it surprisingly better than most office jobs today: shorter, effective workdays, generous rest periods, and a year dotted with holidays.
According to Oxford historian James E. Thorold Rogers, the average medieval workday rarely exceeded eight hours. In fact, the 19th-century labor movement was about reclaiming this older balance, not inventing it.
So should the modern workday be eight hours? Or ten? Or six?
I don’t know that answer, but it does seem that with new AI tools, there’s an opportunity for us to push more tasks onto those technologies both during and after our natural peak hours of concentration. Selfishly, I think we all should seek the greatest payoff and intellectual stimulation on the job during those first few hours of lucid thought.
Oddly, however, even if business leaders have structured the average workday at the company to factor in our neuroscience and biology—employees could still fall flat if they’re not taking care of themselves outside of work hours.
Advocate 'Leisure Crafting'
The most successful people aren’t just productive—they’re deliberate about leisure. Research on leisure crafting shows that structured, meaningful hobbies—social, skill-building, or goal-oriented—lead to better energy, mood, and even workplace performance. Do you like watching horror movies? No problem, but why not structure that activity around geeking out and reviewing them with an in-person community. Build something for movie lovers like you.
Are you doom-scrolling outside of work hours? That's not going to help you on or off the job.
So, are four-day weeks or 35-hour schedules the magic formula?
Not always. Industry matters. Context matters. But the idea that more time equals better work? That’s definitely expired. Companies don’t just want to win—they want to build winning teams. And humans don’t thrive on lack of sleep, or anxiety and loneliness.
The future of work isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about fitting the puzzle pieces of technology with biology, neuroscience, and common sense.