Concrete – Is there enough time to pour 40 sqf 4″ slab with 60lb bags of premixed concrete if working alone? Any hints

I'd pour the slab, leaving a 'hole' where the bath will be. Essentially, you will make a hole in the slab using forms.

After the slab sets, remove the forms, come back and pour your slightly-lower slab in the hole that was left.

Ideally, use some rebar in the original pour to tie in the new slab for the bath.

Alternatively, maybe consider pouring it all flat and use a transition strip between the concrete outside the bath and the slightly raised tile.

Alternative option 2: if the whole house is going to be polished concrete, why not the bath too? Maybe stain the bath concrete a different color?

You should get a batch mix for this so that you can continuous pour it from end to end in a short period of time. This is the best way to assure a uniformity and even drying time for the whole slab. Mixing in small batches often ends up with one end ready for finishing when you are still messing around with mixing at the other end.

When you get it all poured from a batch truck you then get to concentrate fully on on the troweling and finishing aspects and coverage if needed due to too hot or too cold of weather.

Another thing that demands close attention is to ensure that the wire mesh gets pulled up into the center thickness of the slab as it is poured. Too often it gets pushed down to the underlying fill sand/gravel where is does no good. I have seen this be an even greater problem with a small mixer process because many wheelbarrow trips across the area keep pushing down the mesh and it gets neglected in the due course of going back for another load at the mixer.

Lastly why not put at least some re-bar in the slab. It is a small cost adder to provide much greater strength to the slab to keep it in one piece.