★ Sweden ranks 5th in the world in per-capita productivity (IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2025) and 4th in happiness (World Happiness Report 2025). In 2023, Swedish workers averaged 1,437 hours of annual working time versus Japan‘s 1,611 hours—174 hours less—yet productivity is higher. Why do Swedes achieve high productivity without overtime or long hours? The secret lies in how they use their morning hours.
★ Author Yoko Kuyama has lived in Sweden for over 16 years and studied education at Stockholm University. She interviewed about 20 Swedish business professionals and combines their insights with neuroscience to explain how to work shorter hours and still deliver solid results.
★ Meetings and important work happen in the morning. Exercise wakes up the brain. Fika (Swedish coffee break, 20 minutes paid, morning and afternoon) is protected. No overtime. Five weeks of summer vacation. The book offers Swedish work techniques readers can start using tomorrow.
★ This is not just personal experience—it is a methodology backed by neuroscience, sleep research, and happiness studies. The author proposes treating the hours after 4 PM as life’s “Second Act”—time for family, learning, hobbies, and rest—improving both work productivity and life satisfaction.
★ Written for busy professionals, readers curious about Nordic work culture, and anyone seeking a better work-life balance.

Interview and analysis by the translator of “The Phone Brain” (Skärmhjärnan). Reduce waste. The Swedish way of living and working happily.

Why do Swedes achieve high productivity without overtime or long vacations? The secret lies in how they use their “morning hours.”

In this book, the author, who has lived in Sweden for over 16 years, explains how to “work shorter and deliver solid results” based on interviews with about 20 local business professionals and scientific insights from neuroscience. Meetings and important work in the morning, exercise to wake up the brain, using Fika (Swedish coffee break, 20 minutes paid, morning and afternoon), no overtime—work techniques readers can start tomorrow.

Furthermore, treating the hours after 4 PM as life‘s “Second Act”—Swedes typically finish work at 4 PM and use the time for family, learning, hobbies, and rest—improves both work productivity and happiness, proposing a new way to use time.

Yoko Kuyama（久山葉子）
Translator, writer, Nordic social welfare researcher. Born in 1975 in Hyogo Prefecture. Graduated from Kobe College, Faculty of Letters. After working at a Nordic travel agency and the Swedish Embassy’s commercial department, she has lived in Sweden since 2010. She studied education at Stockholm University. Her translations include “The Phone Brain” (Skärmhjärnan), “The Monkey and the Philosopher,” and others. Her books include “Sweden‘s Preschools Have No Waiting Lists.”

Chapter 1: Why Is Productivity High? — The Strength of a Small Country That “Hates Waste”
Chapter 2: What Do They Do in the Morning? — The Swedish Morning Method
Chapter 3: Why Is Morning Activity Effective? — The “Amazing Morning Hours” Scientifically Proven
Chapter 4: Why Can They Meet Deadlines? — The Neuroscientifically Correct Time Technique
Chapter 5: How to Use the Day’s “Second Act” — The “After Work” That Determines Future Happiness
Final Chapter: Why Retirement Can Be Life‘s Peak — A Hint for Living with Purpose to the End