How you feel at certain times during the day is called your chronotype, and there are three major ones:
- The lark. People who love to get up early and have all their emotional highs and lows a few hours earlier than most people.
- The owl. If you don’t like getting up early and can really get to work around 9 pm.
- The third bird. The majority of people (60% to 80% of people), who are neither late, nor early, and just follow the standard pattern.
Folks in the last category should do analytical, logic-based work in the mornings, when they’re most alert. The more creative tasks, where it’s helpful if your mind wanders, should be reserved for the late afternoon. Larks should do the same earlier, while owls might want to do cognitive work late at night.
- Whichever type you are, doing boring admin stuff in the afternoon trough is always a good idea!
- People born in the fall and winter tend to be more larks while those born in the spring and summer tend to be more owls. Men tend to be more owls than women.
The ideal break is 17 minutes for every 52 minutes of work. That’s one hour of down time for every three hours you work. While it’s easy to think that there’s no way this could lead to better results, they found that the quality of the work ended up being higher overall, compared to shorter or less frequent breaks.
But even if your boss won’t allow so much “slacking,” taking five minutes every hour to get up – move around, walk outside, get some fresh air, and have a glass of water – it can make a significant difference in your productivity.
- Human performance can vary around 20% depending on the time or the day, so this is huge information about high performance.
- Ander Erickson, the “world expert on world experts” found that elite performers are great at taking breaks.
WHEN TO EXERCISE?
For losing weight – the ideal time is in the morning because the blood sugar is low and when you do cardio, it uses the fuel from fat storage – so great time to burn fat is in the morning (it can burn an extra 20%).
- Also boost mood, feeling great hormones. You are more likely to maintain the routine. Helps create testosterone since it’s a hormone that peaks in the morning.
4 Great habits to develop in the Morning:
- Drink a glass of water just after waking up.
- Don’t drink coffee after waking up, the moment you wake up, your body produces cortisol, a stress hormone, that help you kick up your day. Caffeine interferes with cortisol. On the contrary it increases our tolerance for caffeine, not a great idea. You can drink an hour or 90 minutes after waking up.
- Soak up the morning sun, get as much as sun in the early morning as you would like.
- Schedule therapy appointment for the morning, therapy sessions might be the most effective in the morning.
We Get Mentally Fatigued:
- Afternoons are high risk time zones for hospitals. Have 3x higher risk of something going wrong.
- Most traffic accidents are between 2 and 4 in the afternoon and 2 and 6 during the night, in the middle of both.
- Judges more incline to issue favorable ruling in the morning than in the afternoon
Endings shape our behavior.
- As one approaches the end of a task or a race, one tends to pick up the pace. Research also shows that people in the 9th year of a decade (e.g. age 29, 39, etc.) are more likely to take on significant tasks like running a marathon. Even suicide rates are up for these people. Deadlines are also more likely to result in finishing something, although in the case of negotiations we don’t always get the best result.
- Endings alter our perceptions for better or worse as this is when we evaluate entire experiences. The peak and end experiences are the ones that we remember the best. They may, however, distort our experiences.
- Duration neglect – how things end has more weight than the cumulative situation.
- Beginnings are important at something but the end is what is remembered the most, the end is critical.
- It’s better to say bad things first to end on a high note – people want endings that elevate them.
- Once we reach the age of 60, we tend to edit the number of people in our social network. As we approach the end, we scratch out anyone and anything that isn’t essential.
People use dates both social and personal to start a fresh start:
- Mondays
- Beginning new month
- New year
- Birthday, anniversary
- “For a vegan day would be better as “Meatless Mondays” than “Thursday vegan”
Send someone a thank you note. Gratitude has restorative powers.
Daily Tasks
Write down your accomplishments for the day. Marking progress day to day is the best motivator on the job. Next lay out your pan for the following day.
Other:
- Re-activate commitment
- Extroverts loose status in groups
- People lax on their deeds when we think people’s judgment of us is waning
- Motivation was highest when the team was down just 1 at half time – this compares to down 6 or more for example
- Going first / last in an interview (look this up)
- When your team is getting along, talk about the future (goals and aspirations) but if you’re not, talk about historical successes.
- Deadlines have a disproportionate effect on decision making
Peak Performance:
Periodization: Balance the right amount of stress with the right amount of rest. Stress + rest = growth.
Growth comes at the point of resistance. You learn by pushing yourself to the outer reaches of your abilities.
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