Routines Help Productivity Posted on February 28, 2008 Peter Salovey (bio) asserts that respecting your natural rhythms leads to your best performance.

I think you need to adopt routines that help you be productive. What do I mean by that? This is going to be very idiosyncratic and differ for people. But I know that I have a natural rhythm that allows me to be most productive doing certain kinds of things at different times in the day.

So first of all I function much better when I -- this sounds like your mother talking -- but I function much better when I get a good night's sleep and when I eat three meals a day. I probably also would function better if I got a little bit more regular exercise, but I'm not a very good exerciser. But that's important. That kind of being in that routine helps me be alert and productive and thinking clearly.

In addition, I know that if I have significant writing to do, it is much better for me to get up in the morning, have breakfast, pour myself a cup of coffee, and sit down and write, and that for me, thinking I'm going to do that late at night and be productive. I'm going to work at about a quarter of the speed and quarter of the clarity that I'll work in the morning.

Now other people, for other people it's different. They love writing late into the night. That doesn't work for me. On the other hand, meeting students in the afternoon, after lunch, going and listening to a talk, or reading in the evening, that really works for me. So I think you have to adopt strategies that play to your strengths, and your strengths are going to be different at different times in the day, on different days of the week.

« Back to Article