Out of the mouth of clients…. “All the coffee beans in Brazil won’t make me a morning person.” Studies have found that there are raring to-go early morning larks and night owls staying late into the wee hours of the night. And like body shape, these tendencies are predetermined by genetics. While environment and personal choices play a significant role, it is hard to change our behavioral predisposition. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sleep-newzzz/200912/the-lark-vs-the-owl-don-t-mess-mother-nature So if you find that you need a triple espresso washed down with a Red Bull to make it into the office every morning, you may need to identify your ideal work rhythm and make career choices accordingly. Consider your productivity cycle: what are your most productive hours during the day? When do you do your best focused work? Keep track to make the most of your workplace productivity. Plan your work day to match the tasks and projects you work on to your energy levels. Schedule the most complex work requiring great focus to the times in the day when you have most energy and are most productive.
Unfortunately, we don’t work in a vacuum. The work rhythms of bosses and co-workers affect our own. Moreover, studies have found that despite the great strides taken in recent years to offer flex-time, there is bias in favor of early birds who get an early start to their day. They are often perceived by managers as more dedicated and hard-working and are rated higher on performance reviews. Yes, rolling into the office after 9:00 every morning may be detrimental to your career even if you stay late and put in a full day’s work. https://hbr.org/2014/05/with-flextime-bosses-prefer-early-birds-to-night-owls?_ga=1.214902231.1386391334.1400159343 Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole is not conducive to long-term job satisfaction. Working against your natural rhythm can get you by in the short term but will eventually burn you out. Ideally, you could try and find an employer willing to stagger employees’ start times to work with their natural biological rhythms. This should be an easy conversation with your boss explaining you’d like to come in later to align your work schedule to your personal productivity cycle. And promise you’d be in early when needed. Unfortunately, redesigning the workday to suit each person’s schedule may not be feasible. Your job may require you to participate in those crack-of-dawn conference calls or to attend early morning meetings. I myself as a manager requested my team to be in the office during regular business hours. The HR department is a customer service function with internal customers, and thus team members were expected to be available to serve employees during the company’s established business hours. If your employer enforces a rigid start time, or if your job function requires a start time earlier than your own natural internal clock, you may need to either re-evaluate your career choices, or develop coping strategies to come out on top. Again, best career strategy is to pay attention to when you are most focused and productive and set your work schedule accordingly, but when duty calls in the early morning, try the following strategies: 1. Minimize commute time When a late start or telecommute are not viable options, you may want to consider moving closer to work to reduce commuting time. If moving is not possible, try getting a job closer to home. While not easy, this will definitely pay off as far as reducing morning anxiety. 2. Upgrade your morning routine Everyone has a different morning routine. Create a list of all your morning tasks; make it as detailed as possible with time needed for each one. Try and take care of as many tasks as you cam the night before: packing your work bag, laying out your clothes, and making your breakfast/lunch, etc. This will give you the much needed extra time in the morning. Whatever your morning routine is, to start off your day on the right foot, think about the things you are grateful for. This could change your whole day. Then take control of your morning routine completing each activity by the designated time. Find an accountability partner who would help you through your first couple of weeks of sticking with the schedule (someone who’d call you when you are likely to hit the snooze button.) You’d be surprised how quickly you adapt to your morning routine. 3. Plan your day ahead of time Night owls tend to arrive at the office before their brains are fully awake. This is the worst time to try and figure out what to do first thing. Not all tasks require the same amount of brain power. Instead of wasting the morning hours in an unproductive haze, create a morning to-do list the day before, when you’re energized and focused. Make your list as detailed as possible and prioritize everything you have to do and everywhere you need to be. Find an app that would help you breeze through your morning. Whether a lark or an owl, I hope you find work that feels fulfilling. “Let us realize that: the privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, and the love of work is success.” ~ David O. McKay
