PERSONAL SPECIAL.... Seize the day

PERSONAL SPECIAL Seize the day

Mornings can be a great time to do some of your toughest mental tasks and be productive at work

At work, a calendar filled with meetings and deadlines often dictates the cadence of our days. But despite what tightly-timed agendas might try to insist, our internal body clocks are secretly running the show. Scientists call this personalised, daily pattern of sleep and wakefulness a circadian rhythm.

Whether you know it or not, our bodies have a specific, set programming schedule for the best time of day to concentrate, spark new ideas, and experience peak performance.

Scientists have tracked how cognitive abilities rise and fall, and found that most of our brains follow a neatly predictable pattern of cognition that fluctuates hour by hour, throughout the course of a day.

Author Daniel Pink revealed his formula for a perfect, sciencebacked workday in his book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Pink reveals a basic formula for a better work schedule, whatever time of day you tend to plug in:

Rise and shine

Almost all of us fall into a predictable mood pattern each morning. Our attitudes brighten in the morning. As we wake up, we become happier, warmer and enjoy work more. The good feeling typically peaks somewhere around noon. So, it might be best to schedule important meetings and earnings calls during these happier morning hours. You’re likely better at keeping distractions at bay in the morning.

At your peak

For most of us, “sharp-minded analytic capacities peak in the late morning or around noon,” Pink wrote in his book.

Scientists who have studied this effect have shown that speed and accuracy at completing tasks are both better in the morning, and that the ability to remain alert tracks closely with sleep and wake schedules, which tend to peak twice a day: once in the late morning, and then again in the evening.

Advice alert

Your stress hormone levels also tend to be higher right after you wake up in the morning — putting the body on high alert — so it’s a good time to soak in the advice of others. Pink suggests you might even want to schedule therapy and psychiatry appointments at this time, since you’re more likely to absorb suggestions. Scientists have found that cortisol (stress hormone) levels tend to spike around 50 per cent within half an hour of waking up, putting the body on alert.

You are at your sharpest

Do any critical analyses in the morning, when your powers of logic and deduction are also at their sharpest. One early study of sleep and wake patterns from 1975 found that people’s capacity for logical reasoning generally rises from around 8 am to 2 pm, then falls off. More recent research suggests that any biological schedule can get wonky in the face of sleep deprivation.

Reflect

We tend to remember the most wonderful or intense moment of an experience, and the final one, too. Pink suggests closing your day on a good note by taking a few moments to write down what you’ve accomplished and looking ahead to make a plan for tomorrow.

businessinsider.in

ET7JUN18