If you’ve got a job with some flexibility—meaning you are given multiple assignments to be working on at once—it can be overwhelming to manage your time.
As an interviewer, when I ask a job candidate about their time management skills, I get the standard answers that everyone knows they are supposed to say, “I keep a ‘to do list,’” “I start with deadlines and work backwards,” “I tell my boss when I’ve got too much on my plate.” But I have to tell you—I don’t really think those practices are what make people work their best and juggle multiple projects.
To really improve the quality and quantity of what I’m producing at work, I’ve learned to make the most of my natural productivity cycles. Curious about how to do the same? Try these 2 simple steps and shift your time management for good.
Observe your natural states at work. For 1 week, pay attention to the hours when you are most productive, the hours when you are most social, and then hours when it is hardest to focus.
Design your work days around your natural states. Prioritize the kinds of activities (quiet time at your desk, water cooler relationship building, meetings, etc.) based on your energy.
Here’s what this looks like for me:
When I realized that I am most focused and productive between the hours of 9am-12pm, I learned to try and protect that time from meetings and other distractions. Left uninterrupted, these are my best hours to churn out the independent work that is hardest for me—thinking through a strategy and implementation plan, writing a report, or making a difficult decision. If I spend my morning in meetings, I feel drained before noon and getting anything done for the rest of the day is a struggle. This is because I have a natural dip in my energy between 2-4pm. If I’m at my desk, it becomes hard for me to focus and I’m easily distracted. However, if I’m around others and engaging in conversation, those hours can be productive. I needed to find the right kind of stimulation to balance my natural dip. During these hours I am re-energized by others. Therefore I try to schedule meetings in the afternoon to make the most of them.
What’s your natural productivity flow? How can you take ownership of your days to optimize your hours and ride your natural waves?