Work days are a marathon, not a sprint. While you’d like to run at top speed all the time, you will accomplish more—faster—if you pace yourself.
Perhaps you already recognize something basic about your internal clock, that you’re either a morning person or a night person. But the day is filled with peaks and valleys of performance. Learn how to work with those rhythms.
Start by logging observations about your ability to focus and complete different types of work. Look for patterns in these areas:
- Time of day. Concentrating can be easier before or after regular work hours, when few interruptions occur.
- Day of the week. You might discover that Thursday morning is the best time to reach your key contacts.
- Surroundings. Do your best ideas come while you are at your desk or driving home from work?
- Preceding and following activities. Immediately after a meeting, when the topics and ideas are fresh, can be a great time to complete—or at least jump-start— follow-up activities.
- People with you. Do you process snail mail faster when your assistant works with you? If collaborating with one colleague is more difficult, schedule time for those activities when you are energized, and give yourself a break afterward.
- Recent meals. Notice the effect food has. You might discover that you avoid an afternoon slump when you eat a lighter lunch.
Once you learn how different factors affect you, use that information to schedule your work. If you know that you will be drained after Tuesday’s meeting, for example, schedule work that is easy or that excites you.
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