THAT'S TWICE AS LONG AS YOU'RE PRODUCTIVE EACH DAY:

The other day I heard a story about something so odd yet compelling that I have not been able to stop thinking about it.

It happened in the Australian city of Hobart where the boss of a financial advice firm started working part-time after his wife -- a new mother -- began treatment for cancer.

Jonathan Elliot found he could get as much work done in five hours as he had in his previous eight, so he had a thought: why not see if everyone else in the company could do the same?

At the start of last year, the 30-odd staff at his firm, Collins SBA, began a trial of a five-hour day, with no cut in their pay. They had to start between 8am and 9am and get their work done by 1pm or 2pm. After that, most were free to hit the golf course, play with their children or whatever else they felt like. The reception desk stayed open all day and urgent client needs were met.

Despite fears the move could blow up the business, it has worked so well to date that there are no plans to end it, says Claudia Parsons, the firm's operations director.

"It's been life-changing," she told me last week. Sick days have plunged. Talented recruits have been hired. Some advisers have done record levels of new business. Clients did not mind waiting a few hours to see an adviser. The firm's bottom line seems unaffected.

The eight-hour workday is not based on the optimal number of hours a human can concentrate. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with the kind of work most people do now: Its origins lie in the Industrial Revolution, not the Information Age.

In the late 18th century, 10-16 hour workdays were normal because factories "needed" to be run 24/7. When it became clear that such long days were both brutal and unsustainable, leaders like Welsh activist Robert Owen advocated for shorter workdays. In 1817, his slogan became: "Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest."

However, this eight-hour movement didn't become standard until nearly a century later, when, in 1914, Ford Motor Company astonished everyone by cutting daily hours down to eight while simultaneously doubling wages. The result? Increased productivity.

Thus, while it may be hard for some to believe, the eight-hour workday was initially instituted as way of making the average workday more humane.

Now, the workday is ripe for another disruption. Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.

That's right--you're probably only productive for around three hours a day.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American works 8.8 hours every day. Yet a study of nearly 2,000 full-time office workers revealed that most people aren't working for most of the time they're at work.

Tweet   @brothersjudd