Getting the most out of your day starts with an awareness of your sleep chronotype and peak productive times.
Awareness of peak productivity times will help you rethink how you give energy to your hours and what you get out of your limited time in the day.
Are you aware of your body's natural sleep and peak productive times?
What times of the day do you have peak focus?
Do you know what time your body wants to sleep naturally? This is commonly referred to as Sleep Chronotype.
Our sleep chronotype affects our peak focus and energy levels throughout the day. Hence, it's essential to know which chronotype you fit in.
Biological clocks differ from person to person. As per Dr. Michael Breus, author of The Power of When, there are four broad categories under which sleep chronotype can be categorized:
- Around 55% of the population are Bears. Their sleep pattern is based on the sun's rising and setting. They are most productive in the late morning to early afternoon, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
- Around 15% of the population are Wolves. They are most productive in the late evening and night, from 5pm to 12am.
- Around 15% of the population are Lions. They are most productive in the morning, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Around 10% of the population are Dolphins. They are most productive from late afternoon to night, i.e., 3pm to 9pm.
Around 70% of us have peak productive times between the morning to early afternoon.
You must be wondering: Where do I fit? Am I a ‘Bear,' ‘Wolf,' ‘Lion,' or ‘Dolphin'?
You can check out your chronotype by taking the quiz here.
Are we making the correct use of our peak productive times?
Now that you know your sleep chronotype and peak productive time, rectifying our common mistakes is important.
Unfortunately, we schedule most of our meetings and non-productive tasks during our peak effective times.
I'm a morning person and fit into the Bear's Chronotype. So, if I were having a one-to-one meeting with you, I would engage with you in the afternoon. This is because I use my peak productive time in the morning to think, create, and strategize (I'm often just toasted by the afternoon to do creative work!).
Client Case Study: Coach doing meetings during her peak productive times
Recalling a conversation with a coach a few years ago, she said, ‘I'm a morning person and start my coaching calls at 7:30.” I was shocked to hear that. I said, “I'm a morning person, too. That's why I don't give it up for meetings! I use that peak productive time for the day's most critical and creative task.”
Let's focus on being ‘productive' instead of being ‘busy' to do our best work!
What do you plan on doing during your peak productive time tomorrow?
Post written by Marcey Rader and Rijul Arora.
