How To Know Your Best Time To Work
Learn what productivity specialists say about our “Prime Time” of the workday.
Everyone has a best time to work. For some, it’s first thing in the morning. Others find productivity from late-night hours.
No matter what your productivity sweet spot is, you need to plan your day around it.
If you want to discover which timespan is your “prime time”, follow the steps listed below.
Testing Your Performance
Once you have identified your productivity prime time, use this time to complete the one task that will make all the difference in your day.
Use this hour or two of productivity each day to tackle what MIT professor and productivity expert Peter Bregman calls “the single most valuable activity” — focusing intensely on one thing at a time.
This concept is often referred to as “monotasking”. Completely immerse yourself in your work during this period and set distractions or notifications aside for later (or better yet, never).
If you find that multiple tasks are completed throughout the day because there’s no scheduled break from them, reschedule those items for other times of the day.
“If you don’t know what your productivity prime time is, you will tend to work on low-value activities throughout the day and as a result feel as though you never get anything done.”
says productivity expert Mike Vardy of Productivityist.
“You’ll be working on tasks that may not require too much attention but aren’t necessarily the best use of your time.”
Vardy adds that it’s also important to keep perspective on productivity and urge those struggling with productivity to remember that there are only so many hours in a day.
“When we start thinking we have infinite hours per day, productivity hits a serious snag.”
Exercising The Prime Time
In his book The Productivity Project, Chris Bailey suggests an exercise known as Prime Time.
As mentioned before, identify your productivity sweet spot by ranking each hour of the day on a scale of 1–10.
Once you have your data, look for trends in productivity levels throughout the day.
Factor lifestyle outside commitments into your results and eliminate as many outside influences as possible.
Use this information to schedule your day around your productivity prime time by completing the most important task of the day during this time.
It is important to separate work tasks from non-work-related items when collecting productivity data for several days or weeks.
If you are constantly being interrupted at work with text messages, phone calls, and emails, it will be difficult to accurately assess productivity levels. Try to eliminate as many distractions as possible when assessing productivity to get an accurate reading.
Conclusion
The best time of day to work is highly individual, but productivity experts agree that everyone has a “prime time” — the time of day when their energy and focus levels are highest.
For some people, this means working first thing in the morning, while others find their productivity peak at night.
The key is to identify your prime time and use it to its fullest potential by tackling your most important task of the day during this time. There are only so many hours in a day, so it’s important to be mindful of productivity when scheduling our day.
In addition, the Prime Time exercise helps you identify productivity trends throughout the day. In this activity, participants rank each hour of the day and look for productivity trends.
Once you have your data, use it to schedule your day around your productivity prime time by completing the most important task of the day during this time.
If you’re struggling with productivity, remember that there are only so many hours in a day, and identify your productivity prime time using the exercises mentioned above!
