Check in with yourself during the early morning and early afternoon during each day of the week. How are your energy levels? How have they changed? Use their feedback coupled with your observations to build context for outlining your circadian rhythms.

A time-tracking tool could come in handy here, but you can also just make note of your energy levels in a notebook with a timestamp. Usually, one week is a reasonable amount of time to get a good sense of when you work the best.

Attention to these contextual factors paints a full picture of your circadian rhythm. You can plan a perfect day around your best working hours, but if you still deal with distractions or procrastinate, there may be another culprit. Look at your physical and digital workspace to see if distractions surround you.

Pinpoint things that distract you from work and write out solutions. You can mute a noisy office with noise-canceling headphones. Eliminate frequent smartphone pings by pausing notifications on your phone and removing it from your workspace. Look at how you prioritize your day. At the end or beginning of each workday, look at your task list and schedule a day that optimizes your peak focus hours.

Finally, find the tools and techniques necessary to stop procrastinating and multitasking. Both are the enemies of productivity. Productivity apps can help mitigate the impact they have on your work. In summary, pay attention to the following things that could be taking a toll on your productivity:.

Taking a critical look at your other work habits goes hand-in-hand with planning a productive routine based on your circadian rhythm. Cover all your bases to create a schedule and workspace that supports healthy productivity.

Schedule your most important tasks for this period of time. If your work allows, you can adjust your entire day to align with your internal clock. An increasing number of people work from home, giving them greater freedom to work during their peak performance hours. Planning a workday that aligns with your schedule can have a revolutionary impact on your productivity levels.

Instead of aimlessly scrolling through your task list and wondering what to work on next, you have an optimized day already scheduled so that you can easily move through your to-dos. A day planned according to your energy levels is one built for sustained and effective productivity. Instead, it can have the opposite effect and negatively impact your wellness.

By understanding your circadian rhythm, you can plan a day that aligns with your most productive time. Here at Sunsama, we focus on helping people create lasting healthy work habits for sustained productivity.

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Features Integrations Pricing Love About Blog Log In. Log In Sign Up. How to Plan a Productive Day Using Your Circadian Rhythms Team Sunsama August 21, Whether an early bird or a night owl, the trick is optimizing your most productive hours.

When are you the most productive? What are circadian rhythms? Keep the following questions in mind as your watch your daily work practices: What time during the day do you feel your mind start to wander? When do you feel the most alert and attentive?

In the NFL, West Coast teams have a circadian advantage over East Coast teams during Monday Night Football, because they're playing closer to this second peak. If you're trying to optimize the work of a team whose activities need to be synchronized, you'll need to make some generalizations.

Plan your most important tasks for when people are at or near their peaks in focus within an hour or so of noon and 6 pm. Schedule tasks requiring less focus within 90 mins of waking, early afternoon, and later at night. However, the real opportunity arises at the individual level, which is why educating your team about the circadian rhythm and having them use an app like Rise is so important.

When employees are able to schedule their work in a way that best fits their energy schedule, that's when true productivity gains will occur.

As a jumping off point, here's a schedule of daily sales activities, optimized for productivity:. In truth, none of this advice will help until you've minimized your sleep debt and aligned your activities with your circadian rhythm.

Interested in learning more? Till Roenneberg's Internal Time is a must-read. Please also email us at [email protected] to go deeper on anything we've discussed here. Home About Us Sleep Guide Sales Teams Blog Podcast FAQ Careers Get RISE.

Table of Contents. H2 Item entry. Can wrap to multiple lines for longer titles. H3 Item entry. RISE Sleep Tracker. TRY FREE. Take Advantage of Your Circadian Rhythm for Peak Productivity Not all times of day are equal: how to structure your sales team's day for optimal focus and flow.

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We regularly update our articles to explain the latest research and shifts in scientific consensus in a simple and actionable way. Sleep better. Sell more. Learn more about Rise for sales teams.

Some people tend to experience energy peaks earlier in the day, while others are more active during the later hours. Thanks to the demands of daily life, it may sometimes feel like your biological clock and schedule are at odds.

So what can you do if your daily schedule is out of sync with your biological clock? Early risers, for example, may burn up their best energy in the early morning hours and feel burned out by the time evening rolls around. Night owls, on the other hand, might sleep through what might be the most productive times of the day and find themselves staying up at times when they tend to be low energy.

Paying attention to how your energy levels shift throughout the day can give you a better idea of when you might be at your best. If you tend to feel more mentally alert in the mornings, try to schedule cognitively demanding activities during that time. Changing your daily schedule to better match your daily rhythms can take some time, but it can ultimately lead to greater productivity and improved motivation.

National Institute of Health. Circadian rhythms. Driskell JE, Mullen B. The efficacy of naps as a fatigue countermeasure: a meta-analytic integration. Hum Factors. Chaix A, Lin T, Le HD, Chang MW, Panda S. Time-restricted feeding prevents obesity and metabolic syndrome in mice lacking a circadian clock.

Cell Metab. Wehrens SMT, Christou S, Isherwood C, et al. Meal timing regulates the human circadian system. Curr Biol. Kline CE. The bidirectional relationship between exercise and sleep: Implications for exercise adherence and sleep improvement.

Am J Lifestyle Med. Wieth M, Zacks R. Time of day effects on problem solving: When the non-optimal is optimal. Time-Restricted Feeding Prevents Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Mice Lacking a Circadian Clock. Cell Metabolism, ;29 2 doi: The Body Clock Guide to Better Health.

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Beating the Summer Scaries Guide Beating the Summer Scaries Guide. End-of-Summer Blues Synchronizing Your Body Back to School Stress Mental Focus Morning Routine Reviving Habits. And, it can influence wakefulness and sleepiness.

Because of this, you should try to eat at the same time each day. And, you should try to stay away from dairy and saturated fats. When traveling, or needing to reset because of shift work, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center BIDMC recommend a fasting period.

If, for example, you are traveling from the U. In turn, this can help you adjust more quickly to the new time zone. Primarily this is because it releases melatonin. While not surprising, stress can throw off your circadian rhythm.

As such, identify your stress triggers and eliminate them. Seeing your thoughts on paper can help you develop ways to resolve this problem.

Of course, eating healthy and physical activity are also proven ways to reduce stress. Other suggestions would be to staying connected with others, meditating, and planning ahead.

You should also definitely prioritize yourself by adding a self-care routine to your calendar. Experienced in CSX, productivity management, and chatbot implementation.

Categories Business Tips Productivity Calendar Time Management Meetings Schedule Startup Freelancer Marketing Sales. Home Productivity Center Circadian Rhythm Hacks to Boost Your Productivity.

Circadian Rhythm Hacks to Boost Your Productivity. Abby Miller Productivity Friday, July 31st, Tags: Circadian Rhythm , have a productive work day , sleep hacks. Categories Business Tips Calendar Entrepreneur Freelancer Marketing Meetings Press Productivity Sales Schedule Startup Time Management.

Related Stories. June 1, 6 Income Generating Activities That Are a Good Use of Your Time Read More. November 17, How to Accomplish More Without Upping Your Coffee Intake Read More. May 19, Be Unreachable, Be More Productive Read More. Most of us learned about circadian rhythms during our early school years.

Most living things abide by some form of a circadian rhythm. Our biological clock helps regulate our circadian rhythms. It also informs your most productive time of day. The circadian rhythm is responsible for when you feel the most awake and focused.

Yet, this can vary person-to-person. For example, individuals with ADHD often experience a delay in their internal circadian rhythm.

The first step toward finding your most productive time of day is paying attention to your current routine. Keep a detailed notebook of how you feel throughout the day. Write down when you feel the most focused and when that feeling starts to wane.

Make note of when it seems your prime time for productive work occurs. Check in with yourself during the early morning and early afternoon during each day of the week. How are your energy levels? How have they changed? Use their feedback coupled with your observations to build context for outlining your circadian rhythms.

A time-tracking tool could come in handy here, but you can also just make note of your energy levels in a notebook with a timestamp. Usually, one week is a reasonable amount of time to get a good sense of when you work the best. Attention to these contextual factors paints a full picture of your circadian rhythm.

You can plan a perfect day around your best working hours, but if you still deal with distractions or procrastinate, there may be another culprit. Look at your physical and digital workspace to see if distractions surround you. Pinpoint things that distract you from work and write out solutions.

You can mute a noisy office with noise-canceling headphones. Eliminate frequent smartphone pings by pausing notifications on your phone and removing it from your workspace. Look at how you prioritize your day.

At the end or beginning of each workday, look at your task list and schedule a day that optimizes your peak focus hours. Finally, find the tools and techniques necessary to stop procrastinating and multitasking. Both are the enemies of productivity. Productivity apps can help mitigate the impact they have on your work.

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What is Worklife? How We Work How We Live How We Think. Work-life balance. Share using Email. It has a direct bearing on our focus, and a number of fundamental cognitive functions , including attention, our ability to learn new skills, and working memory — the building blocks of productivity.

It helps to think of your circadian rhythm as your own daily "energy schedule"; a rolling wave of energy peaks and dips across the day.

During the two natural windows of high alertness and wakefulness, which, for many, fall in the late morning and late afternoon, every cell in your body is naturally programmed to be alert and ready to perform.

During your dip, which generally occurs in the early afternoon, your body is naturally programmed to be relaxed and in recovery.

If you're carrying sleep debt, you may feel your dips amplified significantly. Low to no sleep debt will optimize the peaks. While the general concept of circadian rhythm is certainly helpful to know, it's most useful to have a tool like Rise since your rhythm is both unique to you and changes every day based on recent light exposure and your chronotype - the "bias" of your internal clock.

You as a manager might expect your employees to be at their best at all hours of the workday, but an understanding of the circadian rhythm shows that's an unrealistic expectation.

Likewise, employees may want to be their best at all hours, but their natural circadian rhythms will not always align with this desire. One way to see this play out in the real world is in the study of the timing of athletic achievements. Indeed, most world records are broken during this second peak , the time of day when body temperature is the highest.

In the NFL, West Coast teams have a circadian advantage over East Coast teams during Monday Night Football, because they're playing closer to this second peak. If you're trying to optimize the work of a team whose activities need to be synchronized, you'll need to make some generalizations.

Plan your most important tasks for when people are at or near their peaks in focus within an hour or so of noon and 6 pm. Schedule tasks requiring less focus within 90 mins of waking, early afternoon, and later at night. However, the real opportunity arises at the individual level, which is why educating your team about the circadian rhythm and having them use an app like Rise is so important.

When employees are able to schedule their work in a way that best fits their energy schedule, that's when true productivity gains will occur. As a jumping off point, here's a schedule of daily sales activities, optimized for productivity:.

In truth, none of this advice will help until you've minimized your sleep debt and aligned your activities with your circadian rhythm. At the minimum, this can result in exhaustion, obesity, headaches, gastrointestinal illness, poor concentration, and impaired performance.

What disrupts your circadian rhythms? It could be irregular sleep patterns, mental illness, eating at erratic times, or lack of exposure to sunlight. The good news? You can get back on track. Why should you prioritize an evening routine?

For starters, it helps you wind down so that you can get enough quality sleep. What should your evening routine entail? Start by doing something that helps you help and relax. Other options would be to read or journal. You can also review your calendar, lay out your clothes, and avoid blue light at least an hour before bed.

To begin with, go to bed and wake-up at the same time. I know that sounds like when you were a kid, but this ensures that you have a regular sleep pattern. Bonus tip, maintain this schedule even on the weekends, and try to do this naturally, aka not using your alarm to wake-up.

The reason? It enhances nighttime melatonin. Additionally, spending time outside boosts your immune system and improves your mood. When possible, get outside as much as possible.

You can do this by spending your breaks going for a bike ride or scheduling a meeting during a walk. Another option would be to work in a park, your backyard, or balcony. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

According to sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus, there are four different chronotypes or circadian rhythm personalities. He suggests that you determine which one you are so that you can mirror the sleep-wake habits that best describe you.