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A Simple Test to Identify the Most Productive Time of Your Day

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Hi [Name],

Ever wondered if you’re a morning person, or a night owl? Or do you find that you come up with the best ideas at certain times of the day? Or worst, you realized you made more mistakes during other times of the day?

That’s what Daniel Pink talks about in his latest book, When: The Scientific Science of Perfect Timing. Now, the book has lots of facts and figures, such as the research on negative Tweets, or why you might want to avoid scheduling hospital operations (touch wood) in the afternoon, or why the CEOs’ practice the morning conference calls in the morning. All that are fun facts to read about. But let me just help you get to the main gist of the concept, and perhaps you can get a copy of the book over the weekend.

Firstly, let’s start by asking you this: if you have nothing on your schedule for the next few days, and you are totally free to do whatever you want (sounds like heaven, right?), what time will you go to bed, and what time will you wake up? Take the two timings, and identify the midpoint. So if you sleep at 11pm and wakes up at 7am, then the midpoint will be 3am. A 2am sleep time and 10am wake-up time (brunch!) will have a midpoint of 6am.

Now, according to Dan, if your midpoint is:

1. After 5.30am, you are an owl, a night person. You are usually the creative types, more neurotic, impulsive and sometimes depressive too.
2. Before 3.30am, you are a lark, a morning person. You are more stable, happy, agreeable and usually an introvert.
3. In between, you are what he calls the third bird, otherwise, normal. Which is fortunate, because the world’s typical work schedule is designed for you!

If you are #2 or #3, you are in good hands, because 80% of the worlds’ population is in these two categories, although about 20% are the morning people. Night owls account for 20% of the people, a smaller minority, but has a severe impact especially if you need to adjust to the work schedules of the other 80%!

Ok, now that we know what type of person you are, if you are a #3 like 60% of the world, there are generally three different periods in your normal day.

• Morning Peak – Usually before lunch, this is the best time to handle analytical tasks that require logical, focused, disciplined attention.
• Afternoon Trough – The slump (and it’s not always about lunch), where it’s better to have mindless, busy-work.
• Evening Rebound – Kicks in about 4pm, this is an ideal time for creative thinking, brainstorming, out-of-the-box ideas.

If you are #2, the morning person, it just means your timing is a few hours earlier than the normal person. You probably find that your best time to work is in the wee hours of the morning. 🙂

For #1, the night owl, though your Afternoon Trough is the same as everyone else, your Morning Peak and Evening Rebound times are swapped. Yes, you are more creative in the morning, and you are more laser-focused in the evening.

Oh yeah, side note: According to Desktime, a productivity software, the most optimum break time is 17 minutes off of every 52 minutes of work. Try it!

Does this whole timing concept get you excited? I know I was. And here are a few things you can do. Remember the 17 minutes break I mentioned above? Well, you can use 7 minutes of it to watch this short keynote by Dan Pink.

Video link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn1gjO9yw6I

And if you’re the type that wants to deep dive further into the topic, you can get Dan’s book here (https://malaysia.kinokuniya.com/bw/9780525542780). No commission, just sharing the love. 😉

A productive executive is a happy executive, so don’t try too hard to go against your natural self. As a matter of fact, leverage on it and make the best of your genetic makeup!

Talk soon.