When Do You Work? 3 Ways to Map Your Energy to Boost Productivity
One of the first questions I ask my clients is: What are your work hours? Then I ask: When would you like to work? The answers are often really different.
Most of us are working when we think we should be working — not when it makes the most sense for us to work. If you’ve ever felt guilty for not being at your desk at 9 AM or not responding to an email or Slack message within 2 minutes, you feel that pressure — and it’s BS.
We are all unique people with unique internal clocks. When we work with our own energy flow and rhythms, we not only tend to get more done with more ease, we’re happier too. The best time to work is when it is the best time for YOU.
So what is your best time to work? Let’s look at three ways to map your energy to help you focus, enjoy, and get more done.
How to Map Your Energy
To map your energy, start paying attention to your energy levels throughout the day. Give yourself an ‘energy score’ at various points throughout the day. Use a scale of 1–5, with 1 being low energy and 5 being focused energy. Take 3 or 4 days and write down what score you are at every 2 hours or so. Look at your notes to see what patterns emerge. Does your energy drop as the day goes on? Or do you need time to ramp up to your higher energy time?
How could you structure your day to work with your energy?
If you know you feel the most energy early in the morning after a walk, then you can plan the tasks you need the most focus on for that time. If you know your energy dips after lunch, but also after difficult clients, maybe don’t schedule those clients in that slot (or maybe do schedule them in that time slot if they are going to drain your energy anyway!) Schedule something that takes less energy after that time.
Here are a few other things to consider when planning your day around your energy.
Grade A Time
Grade A time is that sweet spot of the day when your brain's ability to focus is at its peak and potential distractions are at their lowest. This is when you do the important things that need the most focus or energy.
Your Grade A time doesn't have to look like anyone else's. And your Grade A time may switch over the course of a year or over years.
Maybe your Grade A time is 9 AM. Do you sit down at your desk and check your messages? What if you put off doing that until you had done some deep work? Maybe your Grade A time is 9 PM. If you try to force yourself to do your important task first thing in the morning, you’re likely to get frustrated. So go grocery shopping at 9 AM or go for a bike ride. Your work day starts and ends when you want it to.
Figure out when your Grade A time is — and then protect it.
Block the time off on your calendar. Turn off notifications for a couple of hours. If you're feeling guilty for not being available to your team, or not taking client calls during your Grade A time, remember this is not all day or all morning, but giving yourself a 90-minute block of time to focus on your most important work will move your projects forward further and faster than trying to dip in and out of project time while also being available for your kids, your team, your clients or anything else.
Time of Month: Hormone Cycle
So you’ve mapped out your energy over the course of a day, but you might find your focus changes not only over the course of a month too. If you are a person with higher levels of estrogen in your system, understanding your 28-day hormonal cycle can be a powerful tool for understanding your focus and productivity. Each of the four phases of the menstrual cycle is characterized by different hormonal changes, which can cause fluctuation in energy levels, mood, and cognitive abilities.
Start tracking your cycle and your energy, the same way you mapped your energy throughout the day. Instead of making notes about each hour, look at each day as a whole.
You may notice there are weeks when your energy is low. This is a great time to lean into rest and self-care or to organize and purge.
When your energy begins to rise, you may feel more inspired and focused. This is a great time to tackle complex tasks or projects that require a lot of mental energy.
The midpoint of the cycle can come with increased confidence, creativity, and sociability. Use this for networking, meetings, or collaborative projects.
And then there’s the part of the month when you might feel fatigued, unfocused, and irritable. Why not use this time to focus on routine or administrative tasks?
You may be saying, “I can’t plan around my cycle like that,” but what if you started making some minor shifts? Block off your scheduler for the week where you are most irritable and meet with clients other weeks. Or leave your admin task for a week when energy is low.
Cycling Through the Seasons
Nature changes through the year and so do we. Just as there are times of day and of the month when you are more energetic and more focused, you may find your energy shifts over the course of the year. Take a few minutes right now and ask: When during the year am I most motivated and energetic? When during the year am I more inclined to pull back?
This may or may not correspond to the busy or slow time in your industry or family. Knowing your energy seasons can still help you make adjustments to work better with your energy. Have a busy season while your energy is sliding into slow down? Schedule some time off when your busy season ends to catch up or put off other projects or events to give yourself as much breathing room as possible.
And while we’re talking about seasons, let’s talk about seasons of life. There are times in life when you may feel less focused. There are times in life when your energy is turned more to a particular part of your life: your business or your kids or your health. That’s OK. The less you beat yourself up for not doing all the things, the easier it will be. Things will change again. Pay attention to what’s working and work with that.
Put Energy and Focus Together
I recommend re-mapping your energy any time you feel like you’re not in your productive, focused groove, because your energy changes. The more you know about your own energy, the more you can work with it, and not get frustrated when your brain seems to be working against you.
Once you know when your best time to work is, find your focus. We’re not meant to do multiple things at once. Choose one thing. Turn off distractions. Set your intention. And do it. When you work with energy and focus, you can get so much more done with more ease.
Focus isn’t always easy to come by, but you can train your brain to focus. A few things that help:
Turning off distractions (Do Not Disturb mode on your devices, tabs you don’t need closed out, noise canceling headphones on).
Signaling to your brain that it’s time to focus (some breath work, certain music that helps you)
Getting super clear on what you are doing. Not working on my course, but creating the slides for module 2 from the outline I created yesterday.
Write it down as a reminder.
Set a timer. Work in short stretches.
Check in your focus when you’re done.
These steps can help you do it alone. But focusing with other people adds accountability. In Focus Sessions virtual coworking sessions, you get that accountability and a focus flow to help you find and keep your focus going. With 16 sessions a week, you’ll find some to match your best energy times.
Thank you to Megan Flatt for this guest post!
Megan Flatt is on a mission to make entrepreneurship easier. She believes you can have a thriving business, a community and a life — but you don’t need more time, you need more focus.
As a Business Growth Strategist, she started Focus Sessions to help entrepreneurs ditch distractions and work more intentionally. Focus Sessions is a science-backed system to provide dedicated, distraction-free virtual coworking to get your most important work done. The monthly membership helps you find your focus, create a solid plan and stay out of overwhelm. Megan’s favorite mantra is “you have exactly the time you need.” Stay tuned for her new book Focused due out in spring 2023.
Besides helping business owners focus, Megan is obsessed with lattes, post-it notes and romance novels. Outside of work, you find her focus turned to her husband and two kids, probably near the water, in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can catch up with Megan at focus-sessions.com or letscollective.co.
