A major contributor to the lessons of my last trial was the book The Productivity Project; it offered a number of helpful practices to increase productivity. An early idea in the book is a process of tracking energy levels throughout the day. Through this, one can determine a “biological prime time,” the time of day with the most energy.
Time and Energy
A major idea of the book is that there are three resources used in every task throughout the day: time, energy, and focus. We don’t have real control over those resources, but we can determine the best ways to use them.
Through understanding what times throughout the day I have the most energy, I can plan to work on bigger, more challenging tasks that need me at my best. Chris Bailey calls this the biological prime time. Understanding the prime time is just half of the benefit. It also provides the times I’m at my lowest energy and should schedule simpler tasks.
The way to understand this is by tracking my energy levels every hour over the course of a few weeks; from a large sample size of days, a clearer picture is created. One caveat with this practice is the elimination of energy manipulating sources like caffeine and alcohol.
Challenges
I’ve done trials to give up alcohol and caffeine in the past but not for this reason. Previously, my goal was to determine if I was able to give up the substances. This trial, however, is focused on their impact on energy. Both of these have a cost on energy in the future for some short term benefits. By not indulging in them, I can better track my prime time.
In just these first few days, the sacrifices were easier than I expected. I’ve been considering giving myself a cheat day in which I can have a cup of coffee on Sunday mornings as a small treat, as I do enjoy a warm drink on these cold days. I’m still debating as the days pass. Cutting this out, however, has already shown one positive result – no more 5 PM crash that had become a regular experience during the week.
The toughest part I’ve experienced in implementation, so far, is the habit of checking in every hour to jot down my energy. As time passes, I expect this should become easier to do with regularity.
Trying Out Before Buying In 