What would happen if you worked only eight hours a week?

The study was big. It used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, which held information on more than 80,000 people. The researchers looked at how changes in the number of hours people worked affected mental health over time and asked at what point a person’s well-being improved. Basically, after that eight-hour shift, well-being plateaued, and working more did not increase it by any significant amount.

“It’s like taking Vitamin C,” said lead author and sociologist Daiga Kamerade, “we all need a certain dose, but taking it more than necessary does not bring any additional health benefits, and taking overly large amounts can actually have a harmful effect.”

The authors argued that with the proliferation of technology, such short working hours are not only possible but necessary. And before you scoff at the idea, you might want to consider the British economist John Maynard Keynes who, in 1929, predicted that workers of the future would only work 15 hours a week because of the advances in said technology. And 22 years ago, MIT biophysicist and theoretical ecologist Erik Rauch predicted that because of technological improvements, a worker today would only need to work 11 hours a week to get as much done as 40 hours in 1950.