The Two-Hour Rule

When do you get the most/best work done?

There’s a short window in every day that’s yours to command.

Ron Friedman, the author of The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace, says it’s about two hours each day.

He’s even got a quiz you can take to find out when your two-hour peak-performance time falls in your daily schedule. (Late morning and early afternoon, it tells me, and that feels pretty close to true.)

In fact, I think we have more than one peak energy timespan, because we have different kinds of energy.

You’ve probably noticed this yourself, even if you never really did anything with it.

For instance, haven’t you experienced the feeling of having loads of physical energy, but not much in the way of emotional stamina? You could run around the high school track but the thought of having it out with your spouse over the division of household labor just makes you wanna weep, maybe?

Or you’re good to do the taxes (if not exactly looking forward to the task), but when you think about folding and putting up one more load of laundry, you get the sudden urge to nap, perhaps?

If we really wanted to take advantage of our natural energy rhythms, we’d track our time and activities, along with a quick notation of perceived energy level — maybe on a scale of 1 (no energy) to 10 (I could do this all night) — over a period of a few weeks.

Side note: As luck would have it, I’ve got something for you that might help you do just that. It’s a time-tracker I had made for Pajama Productivity subscribers — a spreadsheet-based tool that does the calculations for you. It wasn’t built specifically for tracking energy levels, but you could just jot down the appropriate number next to each line, if you wanted, or add a column if you’d prefer to keep it all digital. If you’d like to try it, use the following form….

I’ve studied personal and creative/professional productivity for several years now. It’s clear to me by this point that productivity is essentially a matter of self-management.

And my philosophy is basically this: Whatever-the-hell works for you, use it.

Pull in all your tools — all the ways you can trick yourself into doing more with what you’ve got — including the relatively simple tactic of scheduling tasks during the times of day when you’re most likely to have the energy to do them properly.

Photo credit: awoodvine “Sundial on the bridge at Llanrwst” via photopin (license)