Blog

I’ve just started answering reader questions on Goodreads. One reader asked: “Is there a way to discover a person’s optimum productivity time? Or is it always in the morning?”

Great question! I did some digging and here’s what I found:

When it comes to productivity, we’re all wired a little differently. Some of us are night owls, some like to get up at the crack of dawn. Those are two very distinct “chronotypes” – most of us can fall somewhere in the middle, or even switch through our lifetimes.
That said, Steve Kay, a professor of molecular & computational biology at the USC who studies our natural body clock, told Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal that being in tune with our natural cycles can give us “an edge in daily life.”

-For cognitive work, most adults perform best in the late morning. Working memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve, Shellenbarger wrote, as body temperature starts to rise just before we wake up and climbs through mid-day.

-Take breaks! The Federal Aviation Administration has found that short breaks between longer working sessions resulted in a 16 percent boost in awareness and focus. Anders Ericcson, who studied excellence, found that the best musicians were more productive during their practice sessions, and took more breaks and got more sleep than other musicians.

My colleague at the Washington Post, Jena McGregor, wrote a fascinating piece on DeskTime, a software program that tracks work productivity. They found that the most productive workers do focused work for about 57 minutes, then take a break and completely step away from their computers for 17.

Here’s a link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/o…

Jenna has another interesting piece on the best (and worst) times to do things at work:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/o…

-Research shows we start to slide just after lunch. We’re most easily distracted from noon to 4.

-Sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, according to Robert Matchock, an associate professor of psychology at Penn State.

-But here’s the interesting thing – fatigue seems to boost creative powers (perhaps because that pesky and loud internal critic in our heads is too tired to pay much attention?) Another study found that adults tackle open-ended problems best when they’re tired in the evening.

(In truth – when I was writing, I found I had to be well rested and fresh. But when I was editing? The more tired I was, the better – or at least the more ruthlessly – I was able to edit! I had no patience!)

-Exercise is best done between 3 and 6 pm with the least risk of injury, when muscle strength and eye-hand coordination are at their peak, according to Michael Smolensky, a biomedical engineering professor at Univ. of Texas at Austin. (sorry, I have to do it first thing, or I’ll spend the entire day in my workout gear, with my butt in my chair working and never break a sweat.)

-Eating is best done during the active hours of the day. In an experiment, the mice who ate only while active were 40 percent leaner than a control group on the same diet that ate anytime they felt like it. (Hmm, no more late night procrasti eating on deadline…)

-Research has found that when we send emails early in the day – at say 6 am, they’re more likely to be read. That’s according to Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist for HubPot, a web marketing firm.

-Reading twitter at 8 or 9 am can start the day on a bright and fun note. But if you want your post to be retweeted – you’ll have more luck between 3 and 6 when people are tired and may not have the energy to post something noteworthy of their own. And the drama and emotion can light up between 10 and 11 pm.

Likewise, Facebook tends to get the most “likes” after about 8 pm.

Here’s a link to Sue’s fascinating story in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S…

Now, go and listen to your body and enjoy the day!

I love hearing from readers. Post your comments, share your story send me an email, ([email protected]) or ask a question on Goodreads. Let’s keep the conversation going!