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Third, look at this chart to figure out the optimal time of day: Your Daily When Chart Lark Third Owl Analytic tasks Early morning Early to midmorning Late afternoon and evening Insight tasks Late afternoon/early evening Late afternoon/early evening moring Making an impression Morning Morning Morning(sorry, owls) Making a decision Early morning Early to midmorning Late afternoon and evening
Throw back a glass of water first thing to rehydrate, control early morning hunger pangs, and help you wake up.
If you feel sluggish in the morning, get as much sunlight as you can.
I call time-outs like these “vigilance breaks”—brief pauses before high-stakes encounters to review instructions and guard against error.
One British survey got even more precise when it found that the typical worker reaches the most unproductive moment of the day at 2:55 p.m.9 When we enter this region of the day, we often lose our bearings.
“A break causes an improvement that is larger than the hourly deterioration.”12 That is, scores go down after noon. But scores go up by a higher amount after breaks.
frequent short breaks are more effective than occasional ones.
These “microbursts of activity,” as the researchers call them, were also more effective than a single thirty-minute walking break
social breaks—talking with coworkers about something other than work—are more effective at reducing stress and improving mood than either cognitive breaks (answering e-mail) or nutrition breaks (getting a snack).
Nature breaks may replenish us the most.24 Being close to trees, plants, rivers, and streams is a powerful mental restorative, one whose potency most of us don’t appreciate.
consider a short walk outside with a friend during which you discuss something other than work.
Vigilance breaks and restorative breaks offer us a chance to recharge and replenish,
An afternoon nap expands the brain’s capacity to learn,
The ideal naps— those that combine effectiveness with efficiency—are far shorter, usually between ten and twenty minutes.
caffeine, usually in the form of coffee, followed by a nap of ten to twenty minutes, is the ideal technique for staving off sleepiness and increasing performance.
the coffee-then-nap combination known as the “nappuccino.”
breaks matter—that even little ones can make a big difference. Vigilance breaks prevent deadly mistakes. Restorative breaks enhance performance. Lunches and naps help us elude the trough and get more and better work done in the afternoon.
Start by trying three breaks per day. List when you’re going to take those breaks, how long they’re going to last, and what you’re going to do in each. Even better, put the breaks into your phone or computer calendar so one of those annoying pings will remind you. Remember: What gets scheduled gets done.
When you and your team need to plow forward and get a job done even if you’re in the trough, that’s when it’s time for a vigilance break that combines a time-out with a checklist.
If you have a task or project that will need your continued vigilance and focus even through the trough, find a stage in the middle of that task to schedule a time-out. Plan for that time-out by creating a trough checklist
Just as human beings rely on landmarks to navigate space—“To get to my house, turn left at the Shell station”—we also use landmarks to navigate time.
“Temporal landmarks interrupt attention to day-to-day minutiae, causing people to take a big picture view of their lives and thus focus on achieving their goals.”
Temporal landmarks slow our thinking, allowing us to deliberate at a higher level and make better decisions.
In short, we dip in the middle because we’re lousy forecasters. In youth, our expectations are too high. In older age, they’re too low.
