When was the last time you truly switched off from your job? We’re living through a time where our never-ending to-do lists follow us home from the office like unwanted colleagues, pestering us with emails that we check in bed before we go to sleep and as soon as we wake up. This rise-and-grind mentality means our working week bleeds into our weekend and hobbies become lucrative side hustles, which is incredibly stressful. It’s no coincidence that burnout was officially recognised as a medical diagnosis last year. But what would happen if you just stopped working so much? And, by doing so, could you really get the same amount done? These are the big questions in Shorter, a book by the Silicon Valley-based futurist and consultant Mr Alex Soojun-Kim Pang. It introduces the idea of the four-day week and is a manifesto for spending less time at work without compromising productivity. “Overworked or burned-out employees are actually less productive than well-rested workers,” writes Mr Pang. “They’re also less engaged at work, more likely to leave and even more likely to cut ethical corners or steal from the company. Employee burnout costs the global economy an estimated $300 billion a year in sick days and lost productivity.”

We travel more than ever, but despite advances in technology that means we can now fit a camera, torch, wallet, phone and entire computer system into a single handheld device, all of us still have to transport our stuff around in something. A bag is a symbol of a man who has somewhere to go; a sense of purpose if you will. Whether that’s to the gym, the pub or to another country is his business, but a good bag is paramount if the man in question is to look put-together.

When was the last time you truly switched off from your job? We’re living through a time where our never-ending to-do lists follow us home from the office like unwanted colleagues, pestering us with emails that we check in bed before we go to sleep and as soon as we wake up. This rise-and-grind mentality means our working week bleeds into our weekend and hobbies become lucrative side hustles, which is incredibly stressful. It’s no coincidence that burnout was officially recognised as a medical diagnosis last year. But what would happen if you just stopped working so much? And, by doing so, could you really get the same amount done? These are the big questions in Shorter, a book by the Silicon Valley-based futurist and consultant Mr Alex Soojun-Kim Pang. It introduces the idea of the four-day week and is a manifesto for spending less time at work without compromising productivity. “Overworked or burned-out employees are actually less productive than well-rested workers,” writes Mr Pang. “They’re also less engaged at work, more likely to leave and even more likely to cut ethical corners or steal from the company. Employee burnout costs the global economy an estimated $300 billion a year in sick days and lost productivity.”

We travel more than ever, but despite advances in technology that means we can now fit a camera, torch, wallet, phone and entire computer system into a single handheld device, all of us still have to transport our stuff around in something. A bag is a symbol of a man who has somewhere to go; a sense of purpose if you will. Whether that’s to the gym, the pub or to another country is his business, but a good bag is paramount if the man in question is to look put-together.