Respecting Your Rhythm ...

I hate my manager, he is a ruthless egomaniac! 😡🏴‍☠️☠️

What caused this strong and absolutely seriously meant statement in a coaching many years ago was quite peculiar: The team lead had scheduled a short check-in every morning at 8am. And half of the team thought this ridiculous, given that the norm at this company was to start at 9am. Team members tried to address this without success, thus the statement. (There were a few other topics, but this one really made them revolt.)

I was reminded of this today, when my 6-year-old son made a similar statement about school. He actually likes to go very much, just not at 7:30am in the morning - and especially in winter, when it’s still dark outside.

Indeed, our biological rhythm plays a big role in our productivity cycle over the day:

🐦‍⬛ While early birds thrive at 8am and often even get a whole bunch of tasks or sports activities done even before that, their activity level usually drops after 5pm and takes a final plunge after 8pm. (~40% of population)

🦉 Late night owls on the other hand get warmed up at around 10am, often have an activity high in the late afternoon and potentially a creative peak at 10pm. Sports is preferably scheduled in the evenings. (~40% of population)

🦜 Flexible birds are a bit in-between, they can do early mornings and not too late at night. (~20% of population)

Senile insomnia may have an influence when we are growing older, but our biorhythm seems basically a given.

So as a leader, next time you set up a regular early or late Jour Fix, you might potentially want to check-in with your team first to avoid the above reaction. 😉

❓ What’s your preferred activity time? When do you have creative peaks?