No, not a la Grace Jones, a different one. My good friend and business partner, Michael, recently made a cool video which demonstrated how our energy flow affects our ability to perform as we go through our day. And what’s more, he talks about a recent study which showed that workplace stress was massively reduced and productivity doubled using a flexi-time approach. What does this have to do with you and me? A great deal as it turns out!
To the uninitiated, which I guess includes me, I’m not a doctor afterall, the circadian rhythm is what governs our body clock and how we feel at certain times of the day.
There’s a lot to be said to listening to your body. I do a fair amount of exercise in the form of running and gym work and it’s taken me a long time to understand that there are certain times of day when it just isn’t going to happen for me and where my energy levels trough and make the whole thing pointless. I’ve now worked out that the most productive time for me to run is when I wake, so mid-week that will be around 6am. However, other exercise such as weights, I’m not motivated by at that time and prefer to do that after business hours. The point of telling you this is it’s a simple example of listening, acting on that information and getting the most from the time spent on the activity.
So let’s apply this thinking to the business setting, focusing on when we are at our best for tackling certain tasks. If you have an energy peak at 10:30am, that might be a good time to have a call scheduled with your boss, a prime prospect, a key customer, or your sales team. And if you experience a post-lunch lull, then maybe that’s a great time to do some admin, or something else none too challenging. At your next peak you make your calls or deal with a particular issue that needs your 100% focus. You get the idea…. Personally, I use the time first thing to get organised, sort through admin and ensure I’m all set for the day and I use the back end of the day to leave things in a state that can be easily picked up the next day.
I’ve also come to recognise that there is a point of diminishing returns. Working late is one thing. We all have to burn the midnight oil occasionally. Forgetting that you need to take a break, to refuel figuratively and literally, or to constantly work crazy hours is a bad thing. We actually become less productive, get burnt out and generally operate way below optimal.
So if you’re a business owner or manager, you may want to leave the standard 9-5 behind and work according to how YOU operate most productively to get the most out of your day. Extrapolate that across your business or team and hey, things just got a whole lot better!
And with that, I’ve hit a slump as I’m late for my lunch and (not just because food is involved) I’m listening!
You’ll get a better flavour by viewing the video here.
Thanks as ever for stopping by.
PS – Let’s give something thought to other rhythms in business and how we react to those.. Back soon with more on that!
