There’s nothing quite like the Monday morning before the Easter weekend. A heady cocktail of impending excitement muddled delicately with absolute terror at the prospect of two consecutive four-day working weeks. For those of us working the traditional 9-5 (we wish) in an office or computer-based role, how you plan for next week will be the big decider. Will you end up knocking off at 4pm on Thursday for pre-bank holiday beers? Or rack up 16-hour shifts before slumping exhaustedly into the weekend?

The recent results of the four-day working week trials prove, on balance, businesses can run as effectively on a four-day week. But a focus on productivity needs excellent planning and strict time-keeping. So, before you get your head down for the big pull forward, see if you can adopt some of the learnings from the trials to make the next few weeks more manageable:

• Keep meetings short or postpone them if possible. You can win hours back with strict time-keeping, clear agendas or making get-togethers less frequent. See if there are any you can shave back over the next fortnight.
• Eat the frog. As the MIT method proves, doing the trickiest tasks first saves time by avoiding procrastination.
• Smart work. Smart working is different to flexibility and focuses on allowing the employee to work where and when they like to complete their work. If you work in a company that offers Smart, flexible or hybrid working, discuss the most productive way of getting through your workload and prioritise that on these shorter weeks.
• Time-block. If you can, list out everything you HAVE to get done by the Tuesday morning after the long weekend and time-block your diary to allocate time to each of those tasks. Use that schedule to keep yourself on track.