Episode Outline
- If you want to maximize your efficiency: learn about your circadian rhythm and schedule your days accordingly.
- Our day has a U-shaped curve of efficiency and happiness
- Our life has a U-shaped curve when it comes to happiness
- Applications & Tips to Maximize Your Days
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Summary
Understanding Your Circadian Rhythm (AKA Chronotype)
- Understand what your circadian rhythm is because it will affect how productive (or unproductive) you are during certain times of the day.
- “Larks”, “Owls” & “Third Birds”
- Test: http://www.cet-surveys.com/index.php?sid=61524
- Things that are impacted
- When you are most primed for analytical versus creative tasks.
The U-Shaped Daily Productivity
- We start the day that we are very productive in the morning. Then we hit a trough in the afternoon and eventually we rebound in the early evening.
- Depending on your Chronotype, the hours of this U-shaped can change but still stay the same.
- There is a time for art & critical thinking…
- From a psychological point of view, there are times of the day which are poor for critical thinking tasks are actually great for artistic pursuits.
- This is because our neocortex is less engaged and we can “let go” more easily.
- When do you think you would do a better analytical task? Creative task?
- Which is which actually depends on your chronotype…
- The scary implication for healthcare…
- Doctors and nurses make mathematically more mistakes during the troughs of the day and are much more likely to be sloppy, so if you have a procedure, do it in the morning.
Life has a U-shaped Curve For Happiness (importance of mid-points)
- It does debunk the idea of a “mid-life” crisis, but does emphasize the powerful psychological effect “being at the mid-point” has on everything from project teams to basketball games.
- Interesting findings about mid-points:
- We remember beginning and endings the most.
- If the ending of a colonoscopy is not painful, we remember it as less painful even if the total experience was longer and more painful (as compared to a colonoscopy that didn’t end well).
- What’s also surprising is that most people relax their standards during the middle and that people even judge others less harshly for the middle. (If you’re a president, you should focus on the last year because that’s what matters the most.)
- Mid-points are great motivators…and it might be even best to be losing a little bit
- Basketball example…teams are more likely to win if they are down by 1 at halftime instead than if they are tied, have a 1-point lead, or 2-point lead
Summary: Applications & Tips to Maximize Your Day
- Identify your circadian type
- Take breaks & to make them especially helpful:
- Staying tech-free on your break dramatically improves recovery.
- Taking a break with someone beats taking a break alone.
- Sun on your skin & green and nature out perform breaks without them
- For what it’s worth, the company DeskTime calculated 17 mins of break for every 52 mins of work as a golden ratio
- End on a high note
- People prefer endings on a high note even when the overall sum is lower than the option with a poorer ending but higher overall scores.
- End your day with 30 minutes doing the following: write what you