When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

In short, all of us experience the day in three stages—a peak, a trough, and a rebound. And about three-quarters of us (larks and third birds) experience it in that order. But about one in four people, those whose genes or age make them night owls, experience the day in something closer to the reverse order—recovery, trough, peak.

A suggestion: Take a week and instead of organizing your daily schedule by hours, organize it into these three categories: Peak, Trough, Recovery. Create three columns on a sheet of paper. In the first, list the analytic tasks you’ll do during the peak. In the second, list what the administrative tasks you’ll do during the trough. And in the third, list the insight tasks you’ll do during the recovery. It’s a simple way to be more deliberate about doing the right work at the right time.