Working from home and maintaining a remote job has been a fascinating shift in work culture. Despite the ways in which its forced some uncomfortable adjustment, it’s ultimately allowed for a more work-life balance, with the scale slightly tipping more towards life for many. In fact, the “microshifting” trend that’s recently surfaced on social media, which references the idea of breaking up your work day into shorter blocks of time so that real-life responsibilities can be squeezed in, proves that with the right kind of strategy, there’s always time to do it all. Whether it’s doing school drop-off and pickup, taking a pilates class, or meal prepping for the week while on the clock, there’s always a way to get some life down without your work output suffering.

But while this trend has caught fire on social media, it’s actually been in the works for quite some time. As the usual trope goes, women have been doing it for ages while the rest of workforce is finally catching up. Here’s the secret behind how women have quietly pioneered the “microshifting” trend for years now and how to formulate your own microshifting schedule as a remote employee.

The Microshifting Trend

When working a job on location or at an office, it was always crucial to account for your commute time to and from. You need to get up in the morning and look presentable, which can be more exhausting than the job itself. With so much time given back to you as a remote worker, however, there’s flexibility for a bit more life to be lived. Rather than forcing a full eight-hour shift, microshifting allows the opportunity for workers to prioritize integrating their real life needs while completing work activities when they are most productive. It also allows for adapting schedules for tasks in between. Rather than the antiquated 9–5 workday sprint, people are cutting their schedules into small, flexible pockets of focused work or short task blocks that fit around their natural energy cycles or personal responsibilities. It’s an intentional way to maintain productivity, manage burnout, and support neurodivergent workflows while balancing life’s responsibilities.

This has of course been gamechanging in particular for parents and caretakers, as well a Gen Z employees freshly entering the workforce. But while it may seem genius and never before done, women have actually been microshifting long before the term was ever coined. And why is that? As homemakers, parents, employees, and overall humans wearing every single hat imaginable, women are typically expected to be getting it all done anyway. If she’s forced to keep the kids and herself fed, while maintaining a household and finding any windows of time for self-investment, it may likely have to be on the clock. Even though the microshifting trend feels new, the behavior is near ancestral, as women have been juggling unpaid labor forever. Cooking while answering emails, folding laundry during a zoom meeting, and completely work tasks once the household is asleep only speaks to a woman’s historical capability of strategizing and getting all done.

It’s in a woman’s DNA to microshift, a way to multitask while honoring your body’s innate ability to have energetic highs and lows. The workforce is only now just catching up to what women have long known: flexibility fuels productivity.

Creating Your Own Microshifting Schedule 

Want to create a microshifting work schedule for yourself? The entire idea is centered on working smarter, not harder, so long as you understand your body’s natural energetic flow. It’s all about working with yourself rather than against yourself, so it’s important to first and foremost interrogate when you feel most focused vs. when you hit a slump. You’ll then build microshifts around those peaks instead of forcing an artificial 9–5 rhythm.

An Example Microshift Schedule:

  • 9–10 am: “Deep work” microshifts (writing, analysis)
  • 2–3 pm: “Shallow tasks” microshifts (emails, admin)
  • 7–8 pm: “Creative microburst” for big ideas

In the windows of time in between, live the life needed to be lived, whether it’s a YouTube yoga video, going for a walk, calling your mom, or taking a well-earned nap. It’s important to acknowledge that with tight deadlines and group-related tasks, microshiftiing may be as easy for every remote worker to execute, but if it’s possiible for you and feels more fitting for your personal sense of productivity, it’s most certainly worth the go.