Work trends

Four-Day Week Trials: What the Results Mean for Your Productivity

November 10, 2026 · 5 min read

In 2022, 61 UK companies with around 2,900 employees tried a four-day week with no loss of pay. The pilot, coordinated by 4 Day Week Global with researchers from Cambridge, Boston College and the think tank Autonomy, became one of the most cited workplace experiments of the decade.

What happened in the pilot

According to the published report, 56 of the 61 companies continued the four-day week after the trial, and 18 made it permanent. Company revenue stayed broadly the same over the trial period, while staff reported less stress and burnout.

The results come from companies that volunteered, so they are not proof that every business would see the same outcome. But they do show that many teams kept their output with fewer working hours.

How teams fitted the work into fewer days

Participating companies commonly cut meeting time, shortened meetings, and protected blocks of uninterrupted work. In other words, they removed low-value time rather than asking people to work faster.

That is the same idea behind the Pomodoro method: measure and protect the focused part of the day, because that is where most real output comes from.

Applying it without changing your contract

You can run a personal version of the experiment. Track how many focused Pomodoros you complete in a normal week, then try to reach the same number in fewer hours by trimming meetings and batching messages.

Tabula's statistics page shows weekly Pomodoros and focused hours, which gives you a simple before-and-after comparison.

Sources

Tabula is an independent timer app. Study findings are summarised for general information and are not medical or professional advice.

Put it into practice now:

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