Self-leadership
02 / Energy & Rhythm
Key question
When do you work best?
Energy is not a fixed quantity. It rises and falls throughout the day, and this rhythm is slightly different for everyone. Those who know it schedule the right work for the right hour.
Learning objective: You can assess your chronotype, plot your energy curve, and plan your day with focus windows and breaks.
Energy has a pulse. Work with it, not against it.
2.1 / Chronotype
Early bird, night owl, or somewhere in between.
Your chronotype describes when your body clock is awake and when it feels tired. Chronobiologist Till Roenneberg shows that it is largely innate and shifts with age.
01
Lark
Awake and alert early, tired quickly in the evening. The best hours are in the morning.
02
Owl
Slow to get going in the mornings, wide awake by late afternoon and evening.
03
In between
Most people: a peak in the late morning, a post-lunch slump, and a second, smaller peak.
Working against your own body clock takes a lot of energy. Hardly anyone has complete freedom of choice, but it is often enough to shift the most important task to the right time of day.
Your body clock can be understood, but hardly reset.
2.2 / Energy Curve and Focus
The right work at the right time.
Track your energy levels every hour for a week. This will create your curve: highs for deep thinking, lows for routine tasks.
Schedule a two- to three-hour focus block during your peak hours, free from emails, meetings and notifications. Cal Newport calls this Deep Work: concentrated effort that allows new things to be created.
Tackle difficult tasks at your peak, routine ones at your low.
2.3 / Breaks and Rest
Breaks are part of work.
After 60 to 90 minutes of focused work, many people find their concentration starts to wane. Taking a short break to move around, get some fresh air, or have a glass of water is far more beneficial than pushing through another half hour in front of the screen.
Rest means switching off, not just switching tasks. Reading emails during your break simply means changing the activity. True recovery comes from things that have nothing to do with work: being outdoors, meeting people, doing something with your hands.
Switch off, don't switch over.
Exercise
A week at your own pace
Task: Plan a week so that your most important work falls during your peak hours.
STEP 1
Plot your energy curve for a typical day in the tool.
STEP 2
Highlight your focus window and block it out in your calendar for five days.
STEP 3
Plan two mindful breaks a day with something completely unrelated to work.
STEP 4
At the end of each day, write down in one sentence how you got on with the plan.
Evaluation: Did you achieve more of what's important this week, with less effort?