with Ed Reid,owner of The Alternative Board

I’VE written about the length of your working week two or three times this year. Specifically, I’ve discussed the difference keeping Monday mornings free has made to my effectiveness and my weekends – and the simple fact that ‘throwing hours at it’ is never the answer.

Once you go over 50 hours a week the evidence is very clear: you become less, not more, effective.

I’m not alone with my ‘Monday mornings’ – or Fridays, as they are for several board members. So I was intrigued when I came across this article in Cap X: “Why a four-day week isn’t good for your health.”

The article is by Allard Dembe, professor of public health at Ohio State University. The four-day week is the Holy Grail, he says: it gives more leisure time and family time – and significant cost savings for business.

He points out that many big companies have tried the four-day – or ‘compressed’ – week. Dembe concedes some of the advantages of the four-day week, but ultimately maintains that the evidence suggests it isn’t good, either for employees or for companies.

He states – rightly – that the same amount of work needs to be done. In simple terms, five days of eight hours translate to four days of ten hours. And it’s the extra two hours that draw his fire. “All hours,” he says, “are not created equal,” citing studies showing that longer working days can contribute to ill-health later in life. And he questions whether a ten-hour day is worth it if it means losing time with your children for four days of the week.

And as you’d expect from a professor of public health, he also points out that workplace accidents happen when we’re tired.

I’m not going to put Professor Dembe’s article in the same category as Liam Fox’s assertion that we’re all ‘fat, lazy and off to play golf’, but I do fundamentally disagree with it, especially for the entrepreneur.

He makes some valid points, but flexible working is here to stay. The challenge for anyone running a business is to find working arrangements that work for all the members of your team. The top talent that you want – and need – is increasingly demanding flexible working.

But even more importantly, I think flexible working is essential for you: for the entrepreneur. Yes, we carry our phone and our iPads and we access Dropbox so work is never more than a couple of taps or clicks away. But it also means we have far greater flexibility – that we can both work when it suits us and work around family commitments and our work/life balance.

Earlier this year I mentioned the tendency to think in the same way if you’re in the same place. It’s almost impossible to think strategically about your business if you’re at your desk, ensnared in what Stephen Covey described as “the thick of thin things”. That’s why I’m an absolute advocate of spending working time away from your desk, be that Friday, Monday morning or whenever best suits you.

Working at home – or in the coffee shop – gives you space to think and to emphatically work ‘on’ the business not ‘in’ the business. As the Scottish poet said: “’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.” As the English business coach says: “’Tis distance lends perspective to the business.”

And that perspective is one of the most crucial factors in making your business a success. So don’t be afraid to work from home one day a week or to shorten your working week: in the long run it can only benefit you and your business.