Before the house is humming and her teenagers ask her to whip up breakfast or chauffeur them to school, Jen Meegan reads her company emails and revisits ideas she drafted the night before.

A new way of scheduling work time is remaking the typical nine-to-five routine. “Microshifting” is a trend that involves tackling job duties in short, productive bursts instead of a single stretch.

“It was like I was playing life on hard mode” was how Highland councillor Andrew Jarvie felt right up until he finally ...