Time Management Stress: Peak Performance

Focusing on peak performance can reduce your time management stress. Throughout your waking hours you have times when you are at you’re best mentally and times when you’re at your best physically. If possible you want to organize your activities around your peak times and where your greatest payoff exists. n nWhen you try to do your mental activities or your physical activities at times other than your peak times you increase your stress and everything takes longer. You probably never thought about it, but at certain times of the day you have more energy your more focused more attentive, and you feel more relaxed doing certain kinds of activities. Have you noticed that at certain times of day doing physical activities sound more appealing? Have you noticed that at certain times of day your mind is really clear and it’s easy for you to work on something that requires your full mental attention? nnCurrently the times when you’re naturally better able to do certain activities may not match with when you’re doing them now, and that leads to time management stress. The first step is for you to identify the hours when you’re at your physical peak, and the hours when you’re at your mental peak. Sometimes you already know this information if you just think about it for a few moments. About two o’clock in the afternoon could you just lay down and take a nap when you’re sitting trying to focus on something? And if you feel that way doesn’t it take longer for you to do that work, and don’t you make more mistakes because everything is a struggle? It may not be that obvious for you and if it isn’t, start my noticing how you feel each two hour time block throughout your waking day. nnWhen you know your peak performance times you can begin to shift your activities to fit into that time frame. Many writers like to get up and work for an hour the moment they open their eyes. That’s great, but that isn’t when I like to write. I prefer to write in the evening when I can relax, really focus on what I am writing and enjoy it. When you start doing your tasks during your peak energy time things just take a lot less time and they are easier for you to do. And that frees up time for the things you want to do. n nAnother consideration for reducing your time stress and utilizing your peak performance time is payoff. As you start to concentrate on working on activities during your peak performance times you can reduce your stress even more if you focus on the activities that have the biggest payoff first. So when it’s your peak mental time do the activities that have the biggest potential payoff. This is both energizing and rewarding. So for example if your peak mental time is in the morning and the biggest payoff thing you could do during that time is make your phone calls, then that’s exactly what you want to focus on first. You may not have a lot of highly physical activities you need to do during your work day, but if you have a mid-afternoon energy lag that may be just the time to do any activities you need to do that require you to get up and get moving until this low energy ebb passes. Or it may be the time to hold or go on appointments to get re-energized from the people you’re interacting with. When you schedule your activities during your peak performance time and focus on your biggest payoff activities you feel energized and fulfilled. n