My daughter said to me recently that she couldn’t believe how productive she could be in the last hour of the day.  There was something about the looming (self imposed) deadline of 5pm that gave her a motivated rush to get stuff done between 4pm and 5pm.

I often feel this rush at the beginning of the day.  I find myself being super productive during the first two hours of the day and am quite motivated and inspired by what I can achieve when I put my head down and focus.

Studies have shown that we are at our most productive during the first 2-3 hours of our day.  The brain is rather like a battery in this sense.  After a sleep, it’s recharged and “full” and by the end of the day you feel tired or “brain dead”.  There are studies about the amount of decisions we make in a day and how we become “decision fatigued”. 

This makes it critical that we make our important decisions at the beginning of the day, or if they come up at the end of the day, plan to sleep on it before making the call.

3 things to think about when bookending your day:

1. Block the first 2 hours and the last 1 hour of your working day so that you can decide where you spend your most valuable and productive times.
   
   
2. Start the day with a 5 minute scan of what’s important, and schedule your most important meetings, email replies and thinking for the first 2 hours.
   
   
3. Start your last hour of the day with a 5 min check in on what you need to get done by the end and plan your sprint to the end of the day.  If possible, do a 5 min reflection at the end of the day on what you achieved.  Anything you need to sleep on?