Look, we’ve all been there. It’s Wednesday morning, it’s only been two days through the week, upcoming on the third, and you are not having it. Three more days of 7 hours of being bored? Not even to mention extracurriculars, jobs, or weekend obligations, you might be getting home at 8 or 9pm each day for 5 days a week. Oh, and don’t forget, you’ve got homework due tomorrow! It’s exhausting, we can all agree. But what if there was a solution to this. To get everything you need to done, but still not feel dead inside by Wednesday morning. My solution, as well as many places across the world’s solution, is the four day workweek.

The classic “five days a week” workweek, or in our case, school week, is completely outdated. According to Sanford University, an overworked student/employee is not as productive as one working a normal schedule. Now the only problem is instead of a normal schedule of 5 days a week, 7 hours a day, for high schoolers it’s turning into 5 days a week, 14 hours a day. Students are clearly being overworked. The perfect way to cut out the overwork is to cut out a day in our busy schedules. A happy student is a productive student, so to make sure we’re at the top of our game each day through the year.

A company in New Zealand, Perpetual Guardian, is trying out the 4 day workweek full time, with great results. They have shown better productivity,  better employee engagement, and even a decrease in days taken off. This has also been taking place in Sweden, in which they had a “trial period” with the 4 day workweek, with very similar results and a positive working environment.

Students are being overworked, and the ways to cut it down are to simple. Take away our stress by giving us a 3 day relaxation period, and a 4 day on the clock working period. This would, as proven by many, only result in positives for everyone involved.