Software giant SAP recently announced that it was implementing #FocusFriday in its German offices. As executive Cawa Younosi explained on LinkedIn,

Intention behind Focus Friday is to guarantee undisturbed and focused working time, based on business requirements, so our colleagues can complete their tasks and start the weekend without action items or to use the time for education and personal development.

CIO Magazine adds,

There will be no automated enforcement of the policy, and SAP is not banning meetings on Fridays—customer appointments and other unavoidable commitments can still take place—but, said Younosi, “We know from pilot projects and feedback from our colleagues that they will take advantage without any nudges from outside.”

SAP will also encourage employees in Germany to use their Fridays for education and professional development, important tasks for IT workers trying to keep pace with technological developments.

Leadership coach Christine Meunch has some suggestions about how to make this work.

One small thing I’ll add: it may seem cheesy, but it seems to me that having names for these kinds of days actually helps them succeed. I see a fair number of companies that adopt 4-day weeks giving them names: software company Polar, for examples, calls its Fridays off “Somedays.”  It’s not the thing that will make the difference between success and failure, but I think it helps establish a collective plan to use time more intentionally.