Are you a toe tapper? Do you like drums? Or the tambourine? All these instruments are percussions, creating rhythms with their sounds.
Guess what? YOU are creating rhythms too.
Yup, every 24 hours, our circadian rhythms create a beat to our own life.
Circadian rhythms are a series of fluctuations from high to low in over 100 of our bodily functions, including body temperature, energy levels, moods, hormone secretions, appetite, sensory acuity and much more. Our ability to learn and perform tasks is also effected by our circadian rhythms.
Studies have shown that alertness, for example, drops significantly between 2-5pm and 2-7am every day for most people. (Webb 1995)
Now, that’s no excuse for slacking off at different times of the day!
What it is, though, is useful information for scheduling your tasks, priorities and events for times when you are most likely to respond effectively to them.
Scheduling activities for your “highs” often means being able to work faster, easier, with less effort and bigger results.
Action – You can learn your individual rhythms by keeping track of your daily fluctuations. It may take a while, perhaps a month of daily tracking, but once you understand your own “beat”, you will sleep better at night, have more energy, feel lively, have fewer mood swings and be much more productive.
Take control, and march to your own beat!
(My ‘high time’ for high-level mental activities is between 9am and 11am, when I can do the most effective work with a lot less effort. What about you? Leave your reply in the comments box)