Section 6.4. Know Your Personal Rhythms


6.4. Know Your Personal Rhythms

Nature is full of rhythms. As you accept requests for meetings and appointments, it's a good idea to consider your personal rhythms .

There are two hours each day that I'm able to get a lot done.

The first is the hour before most people arrive in the office. I'm not a morning person, but I find that if I can drag my lazy self into the office an hour early, in that first hour I can get more work done than I can the rest of the day because there's nobody else around. It's important not to waste that hour on things like email. Use it for a project that can't get done without your full attention. (See Chapter 2 for more examples.)

The other hour is your high-energy hour. There is a part of the day that you are able to concentrate better than you can the rest of the day. I call this my "big brain hour." This is a different hour for everyone. For some it is the afternoon, for others it is late at night or early in the morning. This is a real biological phenomenon (Google "circadian rhythms"). NASA uses it to schedule shift work in space missions. Many people take advantage of it to schedule their most difficult tasks during the time of day when they naturally have more energy and ability to concentrate.

Take some time in the next week to find when in the day you are most able to concentrate. You might set your computer to beep once an hour. When you hear it beep, write down on a scale of 0 to 10 your energy level and your ability to concentrate. Find the time that both of them are high.

Once you find a pattern, try to modify your schedule around it.

Schedule your brain work around the time of day when you concentrate the best. Reserve that time for the most important (high-impact) projects. Try to schedule meetings away from that time, unless your meetings require serious brain power. Most don't.

Your high-energy time might change as you grow older. When I was younger, that time for me was right around 2 a.m.; now, it's more like 2 p.m.




Time Management for System Administrators
Time Management for System Administrators
ISBN: 0596007833
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 117

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