Author: Lorenzo D’Amore
We are living in the age where work flexibility reigns, and it becomes essential to know how to manage one's time, trying to maximize one's productivity in such a way as to minimize stress. Precisely because of this, people are realizing that when we talk about work productivity we are not referring to “how much you work,” but to “how and in what way.” We all have certain times during the course of the day when we feel more focused, energetic, or perhaps creative, while at other times of the day we feel that our attention threshold drops, causing our productivity to decrease accordingly. This all happens because of individual biological rhythms, and this phenomenon could make the difference between a productive day and a day when you are distracted.
Personalized productivity could help in this regard. It involves learning to adapt one's work shifts to one's peak performance, coming to maximize one's work effectiveness and efficiency, but most importantly reducing stress. But are there strategies for identifying these times of the day in such a way as to better structure our workday? So in this article we will try to answer the latter question, exploring practical techniques for discovering what one's optimal pace is in such a way as to make the most of one's abilities.
But what is personalized productivity?
It is a work approach where we tailor the day's schedules and activities to personal biological rhythms and times of maximum effectiveness and efficiency. This technique allows each of us to structure our day according to the periods when we have the highest concentration threshold and possess the most energy and creativity, maximizing and making the most of our work performance and personal well-being.
Is sleeping the same for everyone? Discovering chronotypes
Sleep is a physiological activity necessary for the maintenance of a good state of well-being. Many of us have experienced, at least once, the effects of not sleeping: fatigue, poor concentration or increased irritability. Hence the question arises: But is sleep the same for everyone? From this question we come to the definition of chronotype: The chronotype is the predisposition of each of us to perform daily activities at a particular time of day. How many chronotypes are there? Generally speaking, individuals can be classified into 3 chronotypes:
morning people: such people seem to perform better if they perform activities in the morning hours, falling asleep early in the evening and waking up early in the morning.
nighters: in contrast, they perform better if they perform activities in the second part of the day and will have a tendency to fall asleep later in the evening and greater difficulty waking up early in the morning.
intermediates risers: those who prefer to perform activities in between these two extremes, having a balanced performance throughout the day and being the most adaptable to different work rhythms
How do you identify your biological rhythm?
Productivity is not the same for everyone. It varies from person to person and, more importantly, it varies many times over the course of a single day based on our biological rhythm, that is, our cycle of energy and concentration regulated by our body's mind. Being able to understand one's rhythm becomes essential in order to get to work more efficiently, reducing mental stress and increasing our work well-being. Three different methods can be used to better understand one's peak performance:
1) Self-observation: note down for a few days the times of day when you feel most energetic, creative and tired
2) Chronotype testing: taking some online quizzes could help you figure out whether you are an early riser or a night owl, so that you can identify your own biological rhythm.
3) Time-tracking tools: using apps such as Rescue time could help you track time so that you can identify your phases of the day when you are most productive
How can work be aligned with maximum productivity?
After identifying the maximum potential output that each of us has throughout the day, one must proceed with strategically organizing one's work. First, one can organize oneself by performing, for example, the activities that require more mental effort, such as problem solving, at times of maximum concentration and energy. Conversely, during periods of low concentration one should perform only repetitive tasks that do not require high cognitive effort.
To maximize and make the most of every second available, some strategies such as time blocking could be adopted. This technique is designed to divide the day into blocks of time, where a specific task is dedicated to each of them. Another potentially useful strategy is the tomato technique, which involves constantly alternating high-focus work sessions (25 minutes) with short breaks, to reduce stress, be able to distract ourselves and keep our concentration high as soon as we start working again. Aligning activities with our personal rhythms allows us to be more productive, achieving better results while exerting less effort.
Flexibility and productivity: the future of work is here
As can be seen, the work environment is becoming increasingly flexible so that individual employees can manage and organize their time according to their peak performance moments. Rigid work shifts and traditional structures hardly consider the differences in biological rhythms within each individual.
Solutions such as smart working could allow us to be able to maximize our energy to the fullest, increasing both our productivity and our well-being. Businesses, through flexible work policies, could support this work flexibility by adopting a corporate culture based on goals and employee trust over the number of working hours to be met. This can improve satisfaction within the company and foster a new work approach geared toward innovation and competitiveness.
Final Considerations
So we have come to a very important conclusion: knowing how to align work with one's biological rhythms leads to improving our work performance, making every task we perform more efficient and also having a very positive impact on our quality of life. Knowing how to recognize which are one's moments of maximum productivity leads to reduced stress, avoids burnout, and increases personal well-being. Now all you have to do is adopt your own personalized productivity strategy, so you can better manage every single second within your day. What are you waiting for, make the most of your potential!
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