What's Your Most Productive Part of the Day?

For the last few months I have been getting up early - around 5:30 or so - and working. Mrs. Director wondered if I was developing a new sleep pattern, but the honest truth is that the early morning is one of the most productive parts of my day. After eating a quick breakfast and grabbing a cup of coffee I am a machine, cranking out all sorts of work, research, slides, you name it. Part of it is that I don't have the distractions of calls and emails at that hour, but part of it is my brain just seems to come "on" at that time. This starts trailing off around 10am, at which time I usually coast until lunch.

After lunch my brain takes a nap, even if I don't. 1~3pm I am sort of blah. I don't care what sort of deadline I might have, my brain just won't function. Even doing routine email is difficult, so it is a good time to read through blogs and other low-level "passive" activities (like blogging how my brain won't work).

Around 4pm I pick up steam, hitting a really good stride around 6pm. This session would go until about 7pm, but 6pm is when family-time starts. I sometime try sneak in work during this time, and have gotten in hot water a few times with Mrs. Director when she comes into the living room to find me on my computer typing away, and Little Miss Director parked in front of the TV. I want to spend quality time with my kid, but sometimes I just have ideas searing through my head and have to get them down.

Around 8pm my brain turns off again, so I have found that burning the midnight oil is really a waste. If I have real work to do, I just plug in a movie and wait until the next morning to get to it.