Having a productive day is something that everybody wants, but that few people manage to accomplish. When faced with the question, “How will I spend my time today?”, far too many entrepreneurs give in to the pull of technology; Time that we could spend on growing our business is now spent on scrolling through social media, watching Netflix, or playing video games.
Technology is more addictive than ever, and an alarming study suggest that the average American now spends 10 hours a day to screen time.1
So, how can you stay away from technology and be more productive instead? And what’s the best way to beat procrastination?
A little while ago, I discovered something that helped me get the most out of my days. It’s called the biological prime time—a concept so powerful that it can revolutionize your productivity.
Table of Contents
- What is The Biological Prime Time?
- The Biological Prime Time Is Different for Everyone
- How to Determine Your Biological Prime Time
- Set Aside 2 Weeks to Collect Data
- Know Whether You’re a Night Owl or an Early Bird
- Quit Consuming Caffeine For the Time Being
- Eat at The Same Time Every Day
- What to Do During Your Biological Prime Time
What is The Biological Prime Time?
All humans have what’s called a biological prime time, which is a time of the day (or multiple times of the day) when you naturally have the most energy.
The biological prime time method was coined by Sam Carpenter in his book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, and further popularized by Chris Bailey in The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy.
Chris Bailey’s The Productivity Project is a trenchant and entertaining year-long examination on a topic that concerns just about everyone at some point in their lives: how to be more productive at work and in every facet of your life.
After spending much time studying and applying this concept, I can attest that it is one of the easiest way to tackle a large project and get it done. So, how does it work?
The biological prime time method helps you get important tasks done by doing your most challenging work during times when you feel most energized. How well you can focus is directly correlated to your energy levels, so if you take on your most challenging work when you feel the best both mentally and physically, you’ll get more stuff done.
What’s great about knowing your most productive hours is that it allows you structure your day better. It helps you schedule breaks during lows, and work periods during highs.
If you need to get important stuff done, but you schedule it outside of your prime hours, you risk not completing it. If you do, however, do it first thing in the morning during your time of peak performance, you know that you will be more efficient.
The Biological Prime Time Is Different for Everyone
The work that keeps me busy on MikevanderPoel.com is mostly creative work. I like to write new articles, create social media post, and I occasionally play around with the design of my website.
My goal is to give entrepreneurs and business owners an enjoyable experience as well as new perspectives on how they can run a better business.
The writing part is easiest about an hour after I wake up, and between 6:00pm and 9:00pm in the evening.
It takes much energy to knock creative work off my to-do list when I’m feeling tired and sluggish, so if I schedule it during a time period of peak productivity, I’m able to get it done with no problem. I know this because I determined my biological prime time.
The ideal times to get work done differ from person to person. When you see your most productive time of day depends on many factors, including your diet, caffeine intake, sleep schedule, and whether you’re an early bird or a night owl—to list a few items.
How to Determine Your Biological Prime Time
A lot of people believe that they can determine their most productive time of the day without doing any testing. Though they might have a rough idea of their energy levels throughout the day, it’s highly unlikely that they know their highest peaks without measuring them.
For example, someone who drinks a cup of coffee at 7:00am in the morning might say their biological prime time is at 7:30am when the effects of the caffeine set in. The same person who doesn’t drink any coffee might say that it’s much later, at 11:00am every day (More on how caffeine affects your energy here).
You must take into account all variables that affect your energy to look at the bigger picture. Study your daily schedule and keep any variables as consistent as possible if you want to get accurate results.
1. Set Aside 2 Weeks to Collect Data
The best way to collect data is through a spreadsheet platform like Google sheets. The reason these platforms are great is because they allow you to display your end results in simple graphs, which helps you discover trends more easily.
Set up your spreadsheet so that you can record your energy levels every waking hour for 2 weeks. This can be as easy as setting up a 24 by 14 grid (24 waking hours and 14 days). Once you have that set up, do the following:
- Set a reminder in your phone to record your energy levels on a scale of 1 to 10 for every waking hour.
- Do this for 2 weeks until you have collected enough data to see a trend.
- At the end of the 2-week period, take the average for every hour of the day.
- Plot the final results to see the trends.
This activity might reveal some interesting things. It might turn out that your least productive times of the day are in the early afternoons, and that your productive peak is at 7:00pm at night. Whatever your results, I’d love to hear about them. Share them with me in the comment section below.
Keep in mind that this data is not perfect, and that it only provides an estimate. If you want to do a proper job and get a good idea of when you’re really most productive, then I suggest you follow through on the remaining steps.
2. Know Whether You’re a Night Owl or an Early Bird
At what time of the day do you tend to go to bed? Do you feel like you’re more awake in the mornings or at night?
Depending on your answer, you might be a night owl or an early bird. If you need a refresher, here’s what those terms mean …
- Night Owl: a person who is habitually active or wakeful at night.
- Early Bird: a person who is habitually active or wakeful in the morning.
The time of day at which you tend to go to bed has an impact on your biological prime time.
Someone who goes to bed at 2:00am might not wake up until 10:00am, and thus might not have their biological prime time until later in the day. By the same token, someone who goes to bed at 9:30pm probably doesn’t step out of bed until 6:00am, and therefore might feel fully awake in the early hours of the day.
That being said, it’s best to keep your bed time consistently when you do your testing. Aim to go to bed at a time at which you feel naturally tired, and keep that time consistent for 2 weeks.
3. Quit Consuming Caffeine For the Time Being
This is perhaps the hardest part about testing your biological prime time, and why most people never start.
If you are a habitual coffee drinker and you quit cold turkey, you will experience withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, tiredness, and muscle aches. I know from experience that these symptoms can be uncomfortable and decrease your productivity for several days.
Once the pain of quitting has subsided, though, you will start to see something interesting: When you quit caffeine, you will notice when your body naturally has most energy throughout the day. You will be able to differentiate between naturally occurring energy and that induced by caffeine.
By the way, if you’ve ever considering quitting caffeine for good, I suggest you read Allan Carr’s book, The Easy Way to Quit Caffeine: Live a Healthier, Happier Life. I finished reading it in one day haven’t had a single caffeinate beverage since.
In a fast-paced world, many people turn to caffeine to stay energised. Over 80 per cent of adults in the UK use caffeine every day, but when does this habit become a reliance? Caffeine is a bitter addictive drug which attacks the central nervous system and makes you jittery. Fooling you into thinking you are more alert, caffeine will often disrupt your sleep and actually increase overall fatigue. Quite simply, it’s bad for you with no real benefits.
Knowing your natural highs and lows is incredibly powerful information. It allows you to use caffeine in better ways; If you want to get something done during a time of low energy, you can simply brew yourself a cup of coffee. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
4. Eat at The Same Time Every Day
Eating affects your blood sugar levels, which impact your energy.
If you eat a large amount of sugar, you will experience a spike in your blood sugar for a short period of time before levels rapidly decrease again. This is often referred to as a sugar crash, the feeling of low energy we get after eating too much candy.
Sometimes, we also experience low energy after we eat. According to an article published in Healthline, a little bit of sleepiness after eating is completely normal and nothing to worry about.
If you want your biological prime time to be accurate, eat similar meals throughout the two-week period and at the same time of the day. That way, you will be able to make a connection between your eating schedule and how energetic you feel.
What to Do During Your Biological Prime Time
Before you start in determining your most and least productive times of the day, I’d like you to understand one thing: Devote times of high energy exclusively to work that will bring you ahead. If you tackle challenging work during that time period, you significantly increase your odds of success.
Technology may be your biggest distraction during those times. If you know that you can be most productive between the hours of 10:00am and 12:00pm, put your phone in another room to keep yourself from mindlessly scrolling through social media. Reserve these types of activities for times of low energy.
One of the best ways to be more productive during your biological prime time is to remove cues from your environment. If your phone lights up with a new notification, you’re much more likely to check what it’s all about. What’s out of sight is often out of mind.
Previous: 5 Powerful Ways That Entrepreneurs Boost Their Energy Levels (10 min. read)
Our energy levels go up and down. It’s normal to feel sluggish one day and then full of energy the next. Ask any high-performing entrepreneur how they achieve their peak productivity state, and they’ll likely tell you that it has to do with optimizing their own energy levels. Read more …
References
- Cimino, Alyssa. “Americans devout more than 10 hours a day to screen time, and growing.” IST 110: Introduction to Information Sciences and Technology, 21 Feb. 2018, sites.psu.edu/ist110pursel/2018/02/21/americans-devout-more-than-10-hours-a-day-to-screen-time-and-growing/.