Page 80 - Time Management

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Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters
to you? The better you’re able to predict with some certainty
normal events in your day, the easier it will be to adjust your
scheduling to accommodate them. 65
What’s Your Clock?
A morning person wakes and says, “Rise and shine! Up
and at ’em!”
The night person responds, “Shut up and drop dead.”
Each person marches through the day to the tick of a different
clock. There’s even a science that examines this phe-
nomenon: chronobiology.
Some of our biological Chronobiology The sci-
processes cue our energy ence that studies how the
and attention levels. For body’s systems relate to
time. Brain chemistry, enzyme produc-
this reason, chronobiology
tion, blood-sugar levels, hunger and
has cultural implications
satiation, sleep patterns, and even
for time management in
such arcane physical reactions to time
general and prioritizing in as jet lag are all subjects of chronobi-
particular. It provides ological study.
important clues about how
we should carve out our day.
“Morning people” tend to wake easily and fully alert. They
have a noticeable drop in energy in the early afternoon. “Mid-
day people” are the most suited to the 9-5 schedule common at
most companies, waking most usually between 7 and 8 a.m.
Their energy tends to peak in the early afternoon and they most
likely eat dinner around 7 p.m. “Evening people” sleep late and
tend to wake groggy. They aren’t bothered by early morning
light—they can sleep through almost anything in the morning.
They’re often awake long after others are snug in bed and are
the prime audience for late-night talk shows and vintage movies.
Is it easy to determine whether you’re a morning, mid-day,
or evening person? Not entirely. Energy can wax and wane in
minicycles throughout the day. So try tracking for a week those
times at which you feel most alert and energetic, those when—