It's You O'Clock!

So you're working from home all the time now.  No soul-sapping commutes, office air conditioning, or random birthday sugar-rushes.

Have you noticed when you are better at getting things done?  When you're better at absorbing information and thinking critically?  Or when your mind is all over the place and you can just about manage to clear some emails?

I have.  And now, without back-to-back conference calls, I can do what I feel like doing, when I feel like it!

So:

• I've noticed I'm ready to settle in and produce a big piece of work in the morning.  But not first thing!  So first thing, I clear some emails, do some tick-list admin.  By 9 or 9:30, I'm ready to Do.
• And it doesn't matter when I get up, which explains now why getting up at 6 especially to do productive thought work always seemed so much harder than it should have!  I was really only ready to do little bitty things.
• By about 11:30/ noon, I've got the fidgets again, and not even because I'm hungry!  I want to get up, roam around and do manual things.  I just do.
• But I'll settle down again around 1/1:30.  Although...  I can still focus on producing, but it's a bit less delightful.  However, I'm really ready to tuck into some more passive thought work, like copy editing a contract, or watching an on-line seminar, or going to a meeting where I am a key contributor or attendee.  It's really good thinking time!
• But by around 4/ half 4, I'm working hard at this too.  My mind needs another relax, but I'm not even fidgety.  I want to mentally slob - listen to music, read short articles or stories.  I don't even want to make dinner!  This helps me understand why my best laid plans for starting dinner still have me starting at 6 (unless I have to start earlier, which I wind up resenting).

Careful readers will note that I really only have 5 hours of core productive time, plus another hour or 2 for light admin.  That does not a full-time job make!

So when you're obliged to be in the office at set times, well, you make do.  Understanding how you like to work can help you frame what you plan to achieve when if you have any flexibility in your schedule.
But if you're at home, try to harvest the other hours of the day!

• I find I'm also really mentally switched on for Doing things and creating thought work from 6 to around half 8.  I use a lot of this time making dinner, of course, but if I could stagger dinner, I could use that time to continue working on the stuff I did in the morning!  If you're working from home, utilizing this time, without allowing work creep, could help you be more productive!  But beware sending loads of emails out at this time because you'll just look more disorganized than you really are!  Schedule them to send first thing the following day instead!
• I like to actively mentally relax from 9 to half 10, and often find that if I have dinner relatively early,  (like done by 7), I try to fit myself into this active mental relaxation, but just feel restless, but not in a light admin kind of way.  So I need to channel better.
• What's curious, though, is just before I really want to go to bed, my mind starts making those analytic connections, seeing things in different ways, highlighting and maybe answering questions!  It's my most mentally expansive time!  But I have to harness it (usually by writing stuff down in a notebook - proper stream of consciousness stuff) or by making notes in Google Keep that I can run with the following morning.  

So I'm really starting to structure my days around this schedule.  On the downside, I can get a bit grumpy if I waste the really productive hours (like by having a shower after Boxercise!).  But on the great side, I'm so much less hard on myself for times when things just aren't coming as easily.

In sum, my patterns are:

• Active/productive short-attention-span
• Focused and productive
• Active/ social short attention
• Focused and analytical
• Unfocused and uninterested
• Focused and active/productive (often more physically, but that's probably habit)
• Focused but passive
• Inspired and genius-like (but not focused  or productive)
• Asleep!

I've met some people with really different patterns.  I used to work with a guy who didn't hit Focused and productive until about 6pm, and was at his best on focused and analytical really early in the morning (7 to 10am), but broadly useless and unfocused the rest of the working day!  

Go on - what are your O'Clocks?