How to find the highest productivity time and schedule it right

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A simple technique will help you find the biological prime time on your own.

Ultradian rhythms. This phrase hides periods of activity and recession, replacing each other during the day. Typically, these periods last 90–120 minutes, but the ups (and downs) are not uniform in intensity. In some moments, efficiency increases, in others we pour in creative ideas, and in others we are capable of great concentration. Finally, everyone has such a special time when they can handle everything. Sam Carpenter, author of the book "" called this biological prime time, and we will use the phrase "time of highest productivity." This is the time we will be looking for.

Experiment

First of all, you need a dedicated "Productivity Calculator" in Excel.

For those who find it more convenient to work in a browser, our reader Oleg Kukharuk made a similar table in Google Tabs. Open it by the link, in the "File" menu, click "Create a copy" - and you can work.

Let's figure out what's what.

On the left is a blue field that you will fill in with data. Every hour during the day, you need to assess your condition according to four parameters: cheerfulness, concentration, motivation and creativity. The score is set on a scale from 0 to 10 points and is entered in the appropriate cell of the table. It sounds complicated, but in practice the process takes no more than 30 seconds.

By default, you start at 6:00 am and end at 9:00 pm, seven days a week. You can track a different period of time, but with the condition that since you started, say, at 8:00, you will have to start at this time always. If you want to exclude weekends, you need to change the formula for calculating the average values in the "Average" column: instead of seven, divide by five.

On the right side, you see summary tables and graphs. All of them are filled in and built automatically, there is no need to change anything here.

Apart from that, a notepad or any note-taking application will come in handy. Have patience, set an alarm so as not to miss the recording time, and go! If at some point you cannot write data to the table, make a note in a notebook or application: transfer it to the table later. Avoid the temptation to improve your performance slightly, this is not a test or a competition.

You will have to spend at least a week to fill out the table: only then will you receive reliable data. But in general, the more time you spend experimenting, the better the results will be: two weeks is better than one, and three weeks are even better.

Data processing

There is no special treatment. If you have conscientiously filled in all the cells with the initial data, then on the left side of the document you will have graphs of daily activity. You can easily see when you feel energized, when you are focused, when you are most motivated or creative. Failures will mean the most unproductive hours of the day. In the example you downloaded, only two days are filled, but two peaks of activity are already visible.

Using this information, you can schedule the activity so that the activity occurs during the peak periods, and during the slump, you can take a break.

But the possibilities of the technique do not end there. After you analyze your usual metrics, try to change something in your life. For example, skip coffee, or get up / go to bed an hour earlier, or start exercising, running in the morning, eating healthy foods, or meditating. See how these changes will affect your daily productivity chart. Perhaps this way you will acquire a couple of good habits and your life will become richer.