Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Virtue of the Three-Day Work Week


So I'm starting this campaign. I'd appreciate your endorsement, and would not say no if you would donate to the Naked World Domination Quest, because honestly, you'll all be happier when I'm in charge... but baby steps...


How have I blogged 5 years and this is my first paradise?
So I've been taking Fridays off this month—I had so much vacation accumulated I was losing it and said NO WAY. This is NOT the way to go, so there you have it... and THIS week, I also had MONDAY off because of the holiday (Memorial day, to any of you not in the states)

Well for STARTERS on my 4-day weekend, I got almost 16,000 words written, so THAT was a bonus, and I felt good—enough sleep, enough down time.

And then on Tuesday, low and behold... I got WORK done at work! Wednesday, too. See, I think Americans are expected to work so many hours that you just can't POSSIBLY be productive all of them. But if we had less time we had to be there, we could be productive for all of them. So employers should like this TOO.

Rested productive employees, reduced stress-related diseases, well-rounded people because they have time for a life (or second career, whatever)...

Who's with me!?


In Other News.

I spent much of yesterday twitterpated. I can't tell you why or I'd have to kill you, but I am really hoping it is good news. It's NEARLY good news in ANY case.


In Other OTHER News

BuNoWriMo: 3 days away!!!!

Anybody want to volunteer to clean my desk? After my MONTHS AND MONTHS on one project, it looks a bit like a typhoon.


if you look at the word 'sale' too long, it looks wrong, dunnit? 
And FINALLY: Best Idea EVER!!!

You know, I am really BAD at this whole wonky timing of sales and promo thing. When I do it right, it is totally a FLUKE, but timing that Good PW Review to lead into FREE and SALE? Seriously... I've not only given away more than 500 of the first book (as of last night—more than 250 a day for the free days), I have also SOLD about a third of my TOTAL sales ever in 2 days. Is it going to make me rich? Not even a little bit. For what I've made this month I can buy a seriously less cheap than normal but not good bottle of wine... But people are READING MY BOOK!!!

If you get a good prestigious review and have the authority to have a sale about it, I strongly recommend it—sharing the celebration by giving people a change to share what you are celebrating? Seriously.

6 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Congratulations on the success of your sale!

I like the idea of taking Fridays off to keep vacation days. I may have to remind my husband to do this. Usually he ends up frantically trying to take time off in December (along with everyone else in the office)...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's awesome the sale was huge!
Publishers Weekly didn't have great things to say about my books I'm afraid. (At least Library Journal liked them.)
They say a four-day work week, those ten hour days, are far more productive. Although three days a week, fifteen hours total sounds awesome to me!
I'm just finishing a manuscript now, so no BuNo this year.

Jan Morrison said...

Love a three day work week! I've managed to have it at several jobs over the years so I could do my own thing also work but you know. Now I have a no day work week and realize it isn't good for me.
I think your sale around a good review was a stroke of genius. As we say down the south shore (Nova Scotia)what goes around comes around!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I'm self-employed, so it's pretty much seven days a week for me.

Congrats on all the sales.

Tonja said...

Congratulations on all the readers!

J Lenni Dorner said...

Free you say? Sale you say?
*clicks over to Amazon*
Okay, I'm back now. :)
Yeah, sale does look odd if you look at it long enough. Funny story, one time, long ago, I had a very bad night, during which I forgot how to spell the word "of." After about an hour of looking through the dictionary (it was 1992- not many options), I called a homework help line. The person said to look in the dictionary. I asked for the first letter, so I would at least know what area to start looking under. The person said to sound it out. "Ahov? An A? Or maybe an H? Or an E? Maybe it's something like phone which sounds like neither a p or an h, but an f." The homework help person put a hand over the receiver and said to someone else, "how is of spelled?" I heard the other person, after a long pause, reply, "isn't it of?" My person said, "No, that's off." The other person said, "No, it's one f for of, two for off." A third person weighed in. Person three was sure there was a "v" involved. LOL.

Never think about the spelling of a word for too long. You'll end up making two out of three other people forget as well. LOL.

As for a three day work week... it is to my understanding that in parts of Spain, France, and Greece they get far more done while attending considerably less work often. You may have a real point. Also, in parts of Japan, taking breaks has been studied and proven to increase productivity- which is also more done in less time. You aren't wrong. A well rested horse does better than an exhausted one.