Morning Routine for Knowledge Workers

journal.thriveglobal.com

13 points·w23j··4 comments

"According to psychologist Ron Friedman, the first three hours of your day are your most precious for maximized productivity."

This is tough for me, because I find that I am most productive during my last 3 hours of the typical 8-5 workday. I am a bit of a zombie in the morning and don't find myself really slipping into my groove until around 10-11am. Unfortunately government jobs do not offer a flexible schedule, so I have never been able to work when I feel I am most productive.

First hour of the day for me is waking up and getting ready to go to work.

Second hour is commuting to work.

Third hour is just catching up on all my email, handling emergencies, talking to colleagues, attending meetings, and figuring out what I'm going to actually do for the rest of the day.

Then, if I'm lucky, I might actually get to concentrate on a project, but by then those first three critical hours are gone.

I personally am the most efficient between 10pm and 2am. And always have been. That's when nothing is going to bother me in anyway.

But business hours don't accommodate with this window. Even more now I've crossed the Atlantic Ocean and most of my client are still in Europe starting their working day when it's 3am for me.

But when I really need to move forward on a project, I work nightly.

"For best results: Spend 20% of your energy on your work and 80% of your energy on recovery and self-improvement."

My manager wants me to spend at least 120% of an 8 hour day on work, and in addition to learn new technologies on "my own time" (not really my own if it's used for work). Then he'll get on my case for not being fast enough or good enough.

Recovery? That's lunch, dinner, and maybe 6 hours of sleep, if I'm lucky.

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