When to work: How to optimize your daily schedule for energy, motivation, and focus

When to work: How to optimize your daily schedule for energy, motivation, and focus

There’s nothing worse than losing those few, precious peak hours of productivity to meetings, emails, and other distractions. With a bit of experimentation, reflection, and research, you can map out when to work based on when you know you’ll be most productive each day.

What are personal productivity curves?

Our energy, focus, and motivation follow their own path throughout the day-what I like to call a “productivity curve”

See when you’re hitting your communication threshold

Productivity and time management are about using your time in the most optimal way

Energy curves

We’re naturally more energetic and motivated at specific times of the day

When to work: How to design the perfect day based on your productivity curves

At their most basic levels, these curves remind us that we can’t do it all and need to be strategic in how we plan our days.

Work best in natural cycles of 90 minutes

Ultradian Rhythms

Discover your daily energy/motivation curve

Look at how your energy levels look throughout the day to get a sense of when you have the most and least energy

Stress curves

The right amount of stress at the right time can make us more productive

Communication curves:

Email and IM makes us more productive (to a point)

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