Part IWhy the first 2 hours?
Many of our productivity problems come about because we are operating on autopilot. We don’t think about what, when or even why we are doing things; we just do them in the order in which the tasks came to us, or how they’re written on our to-do list.
Just like the default settings of a computer program, our brain also has ingrained settings that it operates with: if I’m hungry, I eat; if I’m afraid, I run. These settings are designed to keep us alive.
Yet some of our less instinctive settings have been developed over years of learning, repetition and reward: in the morning, I check my email; in the afternoon, I hold our department meeting.
It can be very difficult to change settings that feel like they are hardwired. It takes understanding, discipline and practice. But you can do it.
More importantly, there is good reason to do it!
Even though you may be programmed to do things at a certain time because of habit, you are doing yourself a disservice.
When you learn how your body clock works, then you start to understand that there are optimal times for better brain performance at work. This means you can schedule the types of tasks you do to make the best use of your most productive time.
It starts with the first two hours of your day, and continues every two hours after that.
Read on to find out why there are good, better and best times of the day to do particular things, and how you can reprogram yourself to take advantage of that.
Get The First 2 Hours now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
