 Part of the long, historical struggle for better quality of life has been the fight for a shorter working week. But recession-hit Britain is scarred by cultures of overwork and high unemployment. While some don't have enough, others are caught on the consumer treadmill, working crazy hours to buy things that they don't need, that won't make them happy and that the planet can't afford.  When the recession hit Utah, in the US, and the municipality put its workers on a four-day week out of necessity, they were amazed by the results. absentee rates went down, staff morale went up and carbon emissions dropped by 14%. Could it work here? andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, suggests that a flexible, non-compulsory new norm of a 21-hour week would give us back the time for the greener, more engaged lives that so many people want.  "We'd save money by being able to do more things for ourselves," says Simms, "and with more people around to care for each other and help each other out it would take the pressure off public services and reduce the stress of retirement." He adds that innovations in home ownership and finance could remove the obstacle many face of high mortgage payments. "a voluntary shorter week could create time to be better friends and citizens, and do things that really raise our wellbeing."  For more ideas, read andrew Simms's Eminent  Corporations: the Rise and Fall of the Great British Corporation (Constable, ? 8.99)