When it comes to doing cognitive work most adults perform best in the late morning.
Most people are more easily distracted from noon to 4 p.m.
Alertness tends to slump after eating a meal. Sleepiness also tends to peak around 2 p.m., making that a good time for a nap.
For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best tackled in the evening when they are tired.
Sending emails early in the day helps beat the inbox rush; 6 a.m. messages are most likely to be read.
Reading Twitter at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. can start your day on a cheery note.
If you want your tweets to be re-tweeted, post them between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Posts to Facebook at about 8 p.m. tend to get the most "likes."
Physical performance is usually best, and the risk of injury least, from about 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
To keep from packing on pounds, experts say, limit food consumption to your hours of peak activity.
Summarized from the Wall Street Journal story, "Your Body's Best Time for Everything."
3 comments:
There was a rather scary study done on parole boards in Israel: it found that parole boards were most lenient on cases considered in the morning or after lunch, and toughest late in the day or before lunch. The moral of the story: don't do long, boring meetings with a Big Decision at the end if you can avoid it...
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/study_of_israeli_parole_board_shows_why_good_scheduling_promotes_decisions/
Nice! Maybe I should put this up on my wall so I know when to do what :p
Foo,
Yes, I saw that study. There's a reason I don't ask for things before lunch!
I also try to convince people to eat lunch on time; far too often, people delay lunch because they're "too busy," leading to bad decisions.
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