When To Work

When it comes to your job, it mostly makes sense to let your employer (boss, manager, or whoever is in charge of your department) direct what work gets done, who gets it done, and generally how it gets done. What I never understood was why it ever mattered to my boss when the work got done. As long as my portion of the deliverable was submitted by (or before) the deadline: why would anyone care when I did the work?

There is an entire science behind timing and, if you are familiar with the brilliant behavioral scientist Daniel Pink, you might already be aware of this type of research from his book called When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. I highly recommend reading the book but essentially Daniel describes that there are optimal times of day to do certain things and these times differ from person to person depending on what he calls chronotypes.

Find Your Chronotype

The first step in determining what schedule will allow you to be the most productive and lead you to the greatest success is to determine what type of personality you have. The following test is given in the book to help readers determine their chronotype:

1. Determine the mid-point* of your sleep cycle on your off days. These are days when you don’t need to wake up at any certain time because you have no pressing responsibilities or commitments (think Saturday or Sunday).

*The mid-point is the time half way through your sleep cycle so, for example, if you go to bed at 11 PM and wake up at 9 AM- your mid-point is 4 AM (that is, you slept for 10 hours so 5 hours after 11 PM is 4 AM).

2. If your mid-point is 3:30 AM or earlier, you are likely a Lark.

3. If your mid-point is after 5:30 AM, you are likely an Owl.

4. If your mid-point is in the middle of the two, you are likely a Third Bird.

Stages

Daniel says that each person experiences the following stages at some point in their day:

Peak: This is when your mood is at its highest and you are the most energized