Ever had those days where time runs away from you, and you don’t seem to get anything done?

Well that happened to me the other day.

Home-schooling grumpy kids who were missing their friends as the sun shone outside… the puppy weeing on the carpet (twice!)… issues with one of our websites that I didn’t expect to crop up…

It all piled up.

So that evening, instead of relaxing in front of the TV, I opened the laptop at 9pm to do some work, even though I felt tired.

Big mistake.

I’m just not a night person.

What might take ten minutes in the daytime takes about an hour at night. I feel distracted, fuzzy brained and slow.

I got a few minor things done, but after a little while, I switched off the computer and simply set my alarm to get up an hour early the next morning.

That’s because after many years having to organise my own work schedule, I know when I’m usually at my best and when I’m not.

What about you?

Why you need to get to know your ‘inner clock’

It’s really important to understand how your own mind and body works if you want to get a big project completed, like creating a course, for instance.

One of the keys to your success (and your enjoyment of the process) is to understand when you work most effectively – and when you don’t.

In fact, during lockdown, if you’ve had to work from home or you’ve been furloughed, then you might have begun to notice certain patterns.

There will be periods in the day or night when you are usually positive, inspired and productive.

Some of those times, you’ll find that you’re more distracted and erratic, unable to focus for any length of time.

And other times it feels like you’re wading through treacle to get nowhere fast. You can’t get stuff done and, quite frankly, you want to cry.

One of the reasons for these variations is that inside us we all have a body clock that runs on what are known as ‘circadian rhythms’, based on the cycles of night and day, sleeping and wakefulness.

These rhythms cause physical, mental, and behavioural changes over which you have little control.

So here’s the big question…

Which of these 4 chronotypes are you?

We used to think of two main ‘chronotypes’ – night owls (evening people) and larks (morning people).

But according to research by Dr Michael Breus, from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, there are actually four types:

• Lions – around 15-20% of the population are early risers, who tend to be focussed on their goals in the morning but suffer a slump in the late afternoon.
• Wolves – around 15-20% of the population struggle in the mornings and feel most energetic after sundown.
• Dolphins – around 10% of the population are light sleepers, prone to insomnia, who wake up tired and never feel quite alert, although they can get bursts of energy throughout the day.
• Bears – around 50% of the population get the advised 7-8 hours sleep each night. They feel alert during the day, but tired in the evening.

So of these four variations, I know that I fall into the ‘dolphin’ category with some ‘lion’ thrown in.

I am generally better at working in the mornings, which is when I organise most of my important tasks and brainstorming sessions.

But because I am a light sleeper I get energy bursts interspersed with energy slumps during the day, which I have learned to recognise.

So it’s not as simple as knowing your general chronotype (although that’s an important first step). You also need to map out precisely how and when it affects your behaviour.

For instance…

• What specific periods of time do you feel most alert and inspired?
• During those times, how long is your optimum concentration time before you need a break?
• When do you tend to feel tired, negative or overly emotional?
• When you need to work on something in the more challenging times of the day what’s the maximum amount of time you can concentrate for, and how much can you usually manage to get done?
• How can you predict your ‘slumps’ and ‘peaks’ of energy during the day?

When you better understand your emotional map, you can allocate the most important tasks to the most fertile times and schedule your working day accordingly.

And if you don’t have the luxury of working on your course whenever you choose, then you can also build more breaks and rewards into those periods when you feel tired and listless.

The power of the ‘premortem’

I’ve just read a great book called When by Daniel Pink, which offers some smart insights into when we should tackle tasks to get the optimum results.

He advises that you need to:-

• Asses the emotional and physical patterns in your average day, so that you understand your chronotype
• Learn to anticipate problems with your energy and focus when you start a project
• Build breaks into your work so that you avoid mistakes and procrastination

One tool Pink recommends is a “premortem”.

It’s like a postmortem, where you analyse what happened to someone who passed away, but instead you analyse what is likely to happen to them in the future.

In other words, what is it that might kill your project – and when?

Because when it comes to getting your course created and launched, you need to know that there will be slumps, dead ends, missteps and late starts…

Spotting these in advance is an important part of the process, because you can then better understand them, and then overcome them.

It should all begin with a schedule for your work that harmonises with the ebbs and flows of your energy and concentration.

And if you cannot manage that (because of, you know, LIFE) then you can at least understand better why you are struggling at certain times, then build in more breaks to cope with it.