How to Find the Most Productive Time of the Day
Whether you are an experienced professional at work or are still adjusting to it during these times of pandemic, you are likely to face the problem of “all hours are now potential working hours.” Without a clear separation between home and office, it’s difficult to know when to work and when not, especially when you combine work with parenting, cooking, exercise, daily dog walks, and everything else that goes into a typical day.
But there is a downside to the “stay informed” principle: in some cases, you can choose the opening hours that work best for you . Yes, I know that you might still have to have a Zoom meeting at 8 a.m. and that you really can’t work during your lunch break because that’s when you feed your kids (and, if you have time, yourself). However, you probably have more control over your work schedule than ever, which means it pays to learn how to break your day in order to get as much work as possible in the least amount of time.
I’m very familiar with my own productivity rhythms since I’ve worked from home for the past eight years. I know, for example, that morning is my most productive and focused time, so I try to do as much work as possible before lunchtime. I process my email, communicate with the students I teach online, write my Lifehacker posts, and do any administrative work that needs to be done. In the afternoon, I can focus on a single freelance assignment, but I don’t really have the energy to switch tasks or tackle picky administrative tasks, so I plan projects that require days of research and writing. I also try to accumulate one buffer day in the afternoon a week, in case I work so hard in the morning that I feel burned out in the afternoon (in which case I can take the afternoon off and still meet all my deadlines).
If you don’t already know who you are – a morning person, an evening person, an evening person, or an owl – perhaps because you worked from 9 to 5 for so long that you never had a chance to consider other options – here is the exercise I I give my student writers:
- Try writing a six-word story at various times throughout the day. (Remember Hemingway’s For Sale: The Kids’ Shoes That Were Never Worn.) Start as soon as you wake up. Try to write a new story every time you think of an exercise.
- When you’ve finished a six-word story, note the completion time and look for patterns. Are there times when stories just pop into your head? Are there other times when you think, “I have to write a six-word story,” and your brain says “no, not now”?
- Continue in this manner for at least three days. By then, you will have a good idea of the most creative and productive time periods. You will also know what time of day is the creative blind spot (which is good, because then you will know when not to schedule your creative work).
Of course, you may not need to do the six-word exercise to know where your production peaks and valleys are. You may already know when your job is easy, not when you feel like you have to exhaust your tired mind to do something as simple as sending an email. This means you can immediately start adjusting your work schedule to get things done during peaks and take breaks during recessions.
Many of us have slumps at work after a meal, for example because our circadian rhythms really, really, really want us to take an afternoon nap. If the afternoon is your least creative period, and if your job and your family give you enough space to lie down and close your eyes for a while, why not do it? After all, one of the benefits of working from home is the ability to take a nap when you need it.
Another great benefit of working from home is that you can hug your inner lark or owl. If your most productive hours are after midnight, or if you want to start your days before sunrise, take this opportunity to work best when you do your best. As long as you complete your assignments and projects, meet deadlines, and show up for any required online meeting, you should be able to adjust your work schedule to maximize your productivity.
And if you end up getting more work done in less time, well that’s the goal, isn’t it? Fewer hours spent on work, fewer hours trying to get work done in creative dead spots, and more hours for the rest of your life.
Because if you work in a job where any hour might be working, it’s worth taking the time to figure out which hours are best for getting the job done.