For a long time, I listened to Carey Nieuwhof’s podcast. Carey would often mention how he burned out and the lessons he learned about managing your calendar, energy, priorities to do your most important work when you are at your best. I decided to take Carey’s High Impact Leadership course (the precursor to At Your Best).
Around this same time, I also read Daniel Pink’s When. This book helps you determine your Chronotype. For the majority of people, they are at their best starting a 7 or 8 in the morning (what Dan calls the Third Bird). A smaller percentage are night owls and larks (i.e., early birds). I happen to be an early bird. I go to bed early, get up early, and like to get stuff done right away.
I knew all this, that I’m at my best early in the morning…around 6am, yet most of my morning I spent working out, doing chores, getting ready for the day, and the like. I usually didn’t start work before 8am. Why? I felt like I had to do all these things to get ready for work not realizing that I woke up ready for work.
This year I finally made the connection and start work as soon as I get up…usually by 5:30am. Here’s what I learned from the experience:
Complete 8 hours of work in 2 hours
There are very few people trying to get ahold of you between 5:30 and 7:30am. Plus, after I finish waking up all the way, I’m focused and energized. No Distractions + Focus and Energy = Getting Lots Done
Early to work, Early to leave
This was a big adjustment. I used to work from 8am until 5 or 6pm. The temptation is to work from 5:30am until 5 or 6pm. That’s probably not sustainable for me. My kids get home from school at 3:30pm so I just scheduled something to do with them when they get home. One thing I still need to work on is shutting everything down at around 3:30pm. Too often I head back to the office in the evening to get “one more thing done.”
Make a plan before bed
When I very first started this, I was good about identifying what I wanted to work on first thing because I planned it the night before. I also had days where I just winged it. Those mornings where I just wing it are hit and miss. I’m more tempted to start the day off checking out the scores and highlights or getting some quick chores done…reverting back into old habits.
Distractions are sneaky
While I admit that very few people will try to distract you before 8am in the morning, I happen to be very good about distracting myself. Having a plan helps, but I could do better about turning off notifications. One thing that has helped is I use Rescue Time. Since much of my work is done on the computer, I setup Rescue Time to Focus for the first hour of the day. Focus prevents you from accessing anything distracting. If I try to go to Facebook or Sports, I’ll be blocked.
Hopefully you find this helpful. I have no idea how to make this work for other Chronotypes. I would guess that the idea of blocking distractions and planning for that time when your are at your best will be part of the solution.
Useful Links
- Video by Rian Doris on subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJOsPyyYork
- “When by Daniel Pink helps know your chronotype: https://www.danpink.com/books/when/
- “At Your Best” by Carey Nieuwhof: https://careynieuwhof.com/at-your-best/
- Rescue Time: https://www.rescuetime.com/