Boost Your Productivity by Knowing Your Chronotype
Recently at The Upgrade, we learned about how to time your life correctly : what time of day is best for certain activities and what periods of life are best to start. But the basis of the correct choice of the time of your life is the knowledge of your chronotype. That is, knowing that you are a morning lark, an owl, or, as the author Daniel Pink calls them, “the third bird” (that is, someone in the middle of a morning lark and an owl).
According to Pink, about 15 percent of us are morning larks (that is, if your midpoint of sleep is between 1:30 and 3:00 a.m.), and another 65 percent of us are third birds (your midpoint sleep is between 3:30 in the morning and 5:30 in the morning). And if you happen to be among the 80 percent of people who tend to get up from early to mid-morning, you are likely to follow the cognitive pattern that Pink calls the peak, trough, and recovery period.
As Pink notes:
The most important thing here is to understand … our mental abilities, our cognitive abilities do not remain static throughout the day … We usually progress during the day in three stages: peak, decline, recovery. Peak early afternoon, mid-afternoon low, early to mid-afternoon, recovery, late evening [to] early evening. We know this: during the peak, which for 80 percent of us comes at the beginning of the day (not for owls – we will return to this a little later). For 80 percent of us, during this peak period, we are most alert. Vigilance means we can get rid of distractions. So the research shows very clearly that during this peak period we have to do analytical work. Analytical work is simply work that requires persistent attention and concentration.
According to Pink, the low period is the time of day when we are at our worst. Our judgment is potentially clouded, we are tired, and in general we are working at less productivity. During this period of the day, from early to noon, Pink recommends taking more breaks (or naps!) And working on things that require less attention, such as administrative tasks.
Pink says that during our “recovery” period we are most creative.
So recovery, stage three for 80 percent of us, late afternoon, early evening. This is how it feels. Our spirits are uplifted, but our vigilance has dropped. Good mood, low alertness. This is a really good time for certain kinds of thinking that require some mental relaxation, repeating new ideas, brainstorming what psychologists call insight. So the recipe is very simple … We must do our analytical work during the peak, which for most of us comes at the beginning of the day. We have to do our administrative work during the early to mid-afternoon period, and we have to do our work of insight, work that requires creativity, mental looseness, late afternoon and early evening. These are 80 percent of us.
And for the 20 percent of the population who consider themselves night owls? Their order is slightly different. They tend to follow a pattern of recovery, decline, and peak. As Pink notes:
The main thing to remember about owls if you are an evening chronotype: you have reached your peak, your peak alertness much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much later during the day. … Early evening, mid evening, late evening. This is when you are best at these analytical tasks. So wherever you can find owls, try your analytical work.
Knowing these patterns of cognitive performance is powerful and can help us organize our schedules and prepare ourselves for when we have a big event or meeting during a period of trough (ie inefficiencies). Pink also notes that these phases of the day can affect our performance in other areas, such as exercise.
To learn more about chronotypes and how to use time to your advantage, we recommend listening to the episode of The Upgrade on the topic, as well as checking out the latest book by Daniel Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.