There’s a term making the rounds in the Wall Street Journal right now: microshifting. And if you’ve ever structured your day around energy instead of a clock, you might read about it and think — wait, isn’t that just… how I work?
You’re not wrong. And there’s now a name for it, a mainstream moment behind it, and decades of neuroscience that proves you’ve been onto something all along.
What Is Microshifting?
Microshifting means carving your workday into intentional chunks — focused blocks of work separated by real breaks for family, movement, or personal replenishment. It’s not just having a flexible schedule. It’s designing your day around when you actually do your best work.
In the recent article, “Why More Workers are Microshifting” the Wall Street Journal profiled several entrepreneurs who’ve built their entire work lives around this model. Whitney Munro, founder of a boutique consulting firm, works in three- to four-hour chunks with intentional breaks built around movement and household tasks. Mark Pacitti, founder of Woozle Research, works in two-hour microshifts and put it simply: “This is not only what people want but what works best.”
What these practitioners are describing isn’t a productivity hack… it’s biology — and #TeamVIDA is right on top of it.
Meet Your Ultradian Rhythm
Long before “microshifting” became a WSJ buzzword, sleep scientist Nathaniel Kleitman — the same researcher who discovered REM sleep — identified something called the ultradian rhythm: a natural 90-minute cycle the brain moves through repeatedly throughout the day, oscillating between higher alertness and a quieter, restorative state.
You’ve felt it. That window where you’re sharp, ideas are flowing, work feels almost effortless — and then, around 90 minutes in, your focus softens, you reach for coffee, or you find yourself reading the same sentence twice. That’s not weakness. That’s your brain completing a cycle and sending a clear signal: take a break.
The 9-to-5 asks you to push straight through those valleys. The WSJ article confirms what happens when you do: as one research firm discovered after tracking employee productivity, the last three to four hours of a standard eight-hour shift were dramatically less productive than the earlier ones. When they switched to shorter shifts, employees completed more work per hour.
The continuous workday was never the most efficient model. It was just the most familiar one.
Why This Matters for How You Work
The WSJ notes that microshifting is gaining particular traction among caregivers and people with complex lives — not because they’re less committed to their work, but because necessity taught them something the rest of the workforce is just catching up to: focused hours matter more than consecutive hours.
One founder quoted in the article described spending six hours in front of a screen but having nothing left to show for the last two and a half of them. Sound familiar? That’s not a personal failing. That’s ultradian biology being ignored.
The solution isn’t working less. It’s working in sync with how your brain actually functions — deep, focused effort during peak windows, genuine rest in between, and the discipline to protect both.
Where Coworking Comes In
Here’s what most trend pieces on microshifting miss: working alone in short bursts can feel fragmented and unmoored: Structure, accountability and community truly helps.
That’s the role coworking plays in a microshifting workday — whether you’re here at VIDA Coworking in person at our locations in Portland or Beaverton, or joining a virtual session online, your work block becomes a commitment, not just an intention. There’s a space designed for focus, other people showing up to do the same, and a clear beginning and end to your session that mirrors the natural rhythm your brain is already trying to follow.
Many VIDA members already microshift without calling it that. They come in for a morning session, leave for a meeting or a school pickup, return for an afternoon block. Or they log into a virtual session to bookend their day with focused work and let the rest of the hours flex around their life.
The coworking space — physical or virtual — gives those blocks shape and intention.
The Pitfall to Avoid
The WSJ is honest that microshifting without structure can backfire. Without clear boundaries, you risk an infinite workday where work bleeds into every hour rather than living in defined ones. As workplace flexibility expert Cali Williams Yost puts it: “Without clarity, we have an infinite workday.”
The antidote is exactly what VIDA is built for: a place to show up, focus fully, and then leave. A container for the work, so the rest of your life stays yours.
This Is What “Make Life/Work” Actually Means
Microshifting is having its mainstream moment, but the ultradian rhythm has been waiting patiently in the research for decades. And coworking — done right — sits at the intersection of both.
If you’re ready to stop fighting your biology and start building a workday designed around your best self, your next session is waiting — and we’d love to see you at VIDA Coworking!
Explore VIDA memberships → VIDA Portland, VIDA Beaverton or VIDA Virtual.
VIDA Coworking is Portland’s premier shared workspace, with locations in NE Portland, Beaverton and online at VIDA Virtual.