How Long Does Productivity Last?
As I was doing my daily reads, I was pointed to an article about working the 9-to-5 job. The gist of the article is that in our profession, and others, working a 9-5 is a thing of the past. And reading throughout the whole article, I couldn’t agree more.
It’s a challenge being productive for 8+ hours in the workday. I’ve come to realize, that I have peak times when I am at my best and most focused. One of those times is very early in the morning, before everyone is awake, and it’s really quiet. Another one of those times is very late at night, with the opposite scenario of the morning.
In the case of the modern information worker, nearly all tasks involve creative or strategic thinking. The way someone answers an email or interprets a piece of information can differ drastically depending on his or her energy level. Nobody does their best work 5:30 in the afternoon after they’ve been sucking down coffee all day to stay awake.
That’s not to say that I can’t get work done during the day, because I can, however, it’s not when I’m at my best. Especially when having to sit in a cube. In an ideal world, I think I would wake up early, crank out the important work until I feel drained, and handle all of the other miscellaneous duties (email, paperwork, etc.) for the rest of the day.
I’m pretty sure that I could get more creative work done in the first few hours of the day, than being forced to crank out something within 8-hours. This approach would be similar to 37signals’ 4-hours upfront strategy. After those few hours, come up for a recharge and evaluate what has been done.
So to the readers, do you find it hard to crank out 8 solid hours of work each day? And if not, what times of the day do you perform at your best?
