DEVELOPMENT
Larks , who you might think of as stereotypical morning people Larks represent around 16 % of the population and they should schedule their most cognitively demanding work for early in the morning .
The other extreme are the Owls As the name suggests , Owls have their cognitive peak at night and are best served working on less cognitively demanding work during the day . You represent around 20 % of the population .
Why you need to structure your day based on your chronotype
Would you like to know the best time of day to tackle specific types of work activities ? Then listen in to what Dr Amantha Imber has to say …
THE EXPERT
Dr Amantha Imber is the Founder of Inventium , Australia ’ s leading behavioural science consultancy . She also hosts an insightful podcast about the habits and rituals of the world ’ s most successful people , called How I Work .
It ’ s 9am and you kick off your working day with a quick check of your emails and your daily ( perhaps virtual ?) meeting with your team . You hear about what your colleagues are up to then get back to your inbox , which has built up overnight .
During the last two years of the pandemic , you probably developed a slightly unhelpful habit of checking the news throughout the morning too , waiting for your local site to release the day ’ s case numbers . But , of course , you get sucked into several other headlines and before you know it , it ’ s time for a morning tea break .
What you probably didn ’ t and don ’ t realise at the time is that you have potentially just wasted your peak brainpower time with non-challenging and non-impactful tasks .
But is this the case for everyone ? How do we know when the best time of day is for us as an individual to undertake different types of work activities ?
Well , the answer lies in working to our chronotype ( the natural peaks and troughs of our energy levels over a 24-hour period ) and these can be defined as follows :
Somewhere in between are the Middle Birds The rest of us follow the rhythms of a Lark , albeit delayed by an hour or two . If you wake naturally at around 7 or 7.30am , you are probably a Middle Bird and your best thinking happens before lunch .
All chronotypes have a dip in energy after lunch for a couple of hours . Here , schedule work that is less cognitively demanding , like checking emails or doing team updates and work in progress meetings .
Larks and Middle Birds have a rebound in energy in the late afternoon – but it ’ s here that Owls start to enter their peak brain power time .
Unsurprisingly , scientists have found that matching your work schedule to your body ’ s natural 24-hour energy cycle is enormously beneficial to improving productivity . So … w Assess your chronotype to determine when you should be doing work that requires the heaviest lifting . w Schedule your most challenging tasks for when your brain is at its peak . w Do easier tasks when your brain is having a dip in energy . S www . inventium . com . au
How to structure your day
For Larks Deep , focused work Less demanding work Rebound ( for additional deep work )
For Middle Birds Deep , focused work Less demanding work Rebound ( for additional deep work )
For Owls Deep , focused work Less demanding work Rebound ( for additional deep work )
7-10 / 11am 11am-2pm 2-4pm
9am-12pm 12-2 / 3pm 3-5pm
4pm onwards 1-4pm 10pm-1am
Note : Timings are approximate , so use them as broad principles , not rules !
Winter Issue 2022 | Executive PA 61