How many of us drag ourselves out of bed in the morning? Drink coffee all day to try and make us more alert? Get stuck in the same old routine but not really achieving a lot?
I used to be like this, admittedly not in the last few years, but certainly when I was an employee and dreaded work each day. Since being my own boss I can set my own daily routine, when I get up, when I take a break and walk the dogs or even if I wanted to work into the night and sleep in every morning.
But have any of you ever looked into your chronotype to find out how your body clock can determine the ‘right time’ to do something? Me neither! In my productivity quest this year I added some books to my Amazon wishlist that I’d like to read this year, and one of those was The Power of When by Michael Breus PhD. In fact it looked so interesting I chose to read it first.
There’s a quiz at the start of the book (you can take this online here) which I decided to do online (it was easier than keeping track of my answers). It turns out I’m fairly rare, I am a Dolphin, only 10% of the population are dolphins. Some of the key characteristics of a dolphin are, they tend to be insomniacs (I’m not really, but my sleep is quite disturbed), introversion, intelligence, most alert at night, most productive in spurts throughout the day and strive for perfection.
The other chronotypes are Bears, Wolves and Lions. I’d be really interested to know what you are?
Here is the synopsis of the book:
The latest research shows that there is a right time for all of us to do everything, from drinking a cocktail to getting a flu shot. The catch? That ‘right time’ varies from person to person. Fortunately, as Dr Michael Breus proves in The Power of When, learning to work with your body clock to achieve maximum health and productivity is easy, exciting and fun. When we stop focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of our lives and start focusing on the ‘when’, we reveal our body’s natural schedule and unlock our hidden potential.
In The Power of When, Dr Breus presents a groundbreaking new programme based on the most cutting-edge research for how to get back in sync with your body’s natural rhythm. Filled with fascinating facts, true-life success stories, fun personality quizzes and easy to follow guidelines, The Power of When will teach you how to not only understand your own body clock, but the body clocks of everyone around you. After you’ve taken Dr Breus’s comprehensive chronotype (body clock) quiz (are you a bear, a lion, a dolphin, or a wolf?) you’ll learn to schedule your day for peak productivity and well-being.
Whether you are interested in the nitty gritty of body clock research or just want to follow the big-picture plan and learn how to be your best, The Power of When promises to help you achieve your goals.
This book fascinated me, I couldn’t put it down. In fact many of the suggestions for a dolphin like me I was already doing, for example my one and only coffee each day at 10.30am… not napping… doing more deep work in the afternoons… binge watching my TV shows at lunchtimes. I was really quite surprised that my routine was fairly accurate to what my body clock wants.
I haven’t changed a few things, because I don’t feel I need to. As a dolphin the ideal time to get up is 6.30am… yeah that will never happen, I love my bed. I also don’t jump out of bed at that time and do some light exercise, I walk the dogs at 10am and 4pm, other exercise doesn’t really exist, especially at 6.30am!
Some changes I plan to implement soon are changing my French lessons to around 4pm in the afternoon, that’s because this is the best time of day for me to learn something new. I’ve struggled with my French, so I am interested to see if this helps! I have also started to go to bed later, and I try just to read fiction at bedtime which is less stimulating. I’m also conscious of when I speak to my boyfriend (he’s a bear) about important things, 5pm is supposedly the best time.
Going back to the title of the post, knowing when the ‘right time’ do to things means you will certainly be more productive. Along with some other tips I’ve picked up in the last few months my days are proving to be a lot more productive.
If you do one thing after reading this post, take the quiz, Micheal provides some really great insights into your chronotype. At the end of the book there are four master clocks, one for each chronotype, they are a quick way of checking when the best time to do something is… drinking coffee might not be that important, but what about a job interview, or learning something new? Choosing the best time to do something puts you in control of what you want.
Don’t forget to comment here with your chronotype, I’d love to know!
You can read more from Michael Breus at TheSleepDoctor.com