Seek Realignment

This post comes from my favorite Slovenian, Dr. Anja Svetina Nabergoj, who routinely stays up all night to teach executives with us at the Stanford d.school. Anja is a prolific researcher and insightful instructor. She’s the co-author of Creativity in Research and you can connect with her here.

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In a previous post, I introduced the concept of chronotype and many of you got excited to learn more about your type and its implications for your work and life.

There are generally five chronotypes, and the easiest way to determine yours is by determining your preferred time to get up and preferred time to go to sleep. This is best done by reflecting on your non-work days, when you are more aligned with your inner clock.

Living in alignment with your energy curve to maximize your creativity

I would like to introduce another concept called the energy curve. This curve reflects the ebb and flow in our ability to feel alert or sleepy through each 24-hour cycle. For most of us, energy starts increasing after we wake up and we reach our first peak sometimes during our prime time window, which depends on your chronotype. The first peak in our energy curve is then followed by a decline in energy, but most people experience another (often lower) peak sometime later in the day. While our chronotype determines our general curve, each of us has a very unique energy curve, which depends on not just our hardwired circadian rhythm, but also on other factors as well (eg. sleep, diet, exercise and of course the rhythm of our family life and work requirements).

The best way to learn more about your energy curve is to start paying attention. I ask my students to draw a chart with energy levels on the y-axis and hours of the day on the x-axis and plot their curve by observing how they feel energy-wise through their waking hours. Doing that for a couple of days will give you a pretty good idea of your clock and energy level. Here’s an example of one student’s chart.

Once you know your energy curve, you can derive WHEN to do WHAT. Seek alignment between what your brain is best primed to do at any given time and the task you will engage in. Prime time, which is the highest peak in our energy curve, is supposed to be the time when we are best equipped to do demanding mental work. These are tasks that require high effort in terms of thinking, coordinating, overcoming something difficult and acting proactively. These tasks demand a lot of will power. This is what Cal Newport showed is best time for deep work.

On the other hand down times, when you are lowest in energy, are the times when your brain is less vigilant and you have fewer inhibitions, which makes it easier for abstract ideas to form. As Daniel Pink puts it in his new book, When, innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best (also known as “The Inspiration Paradox”). Think of the time before breakfast, after lunch or before bed as a precious time for creative thinking. In my experience these are windows when it is best to step away from proactively working and allowing our brain to process, find unexpected connections, or seek out inspiration.

Knowing your energy curve can help you design your schedule in a way that works in sync with your inner clock and most importantly, will help you determine your prime time and protect it to engage in deep work. We encourage you to also block one down time each day and make it your official creative thinking time.

Our colleague Baba Shiv from Stanford Graduate School of Business has studied the neuropsychology of creativity and innovation, and specifically how sleep, exercise and nutrition can help us get the best of ourselves. Research shows that the best way to maximize your creativity is to maintain high levels of both serotonin and dopamine (also referred to as X-framework), which will keep you calm but excited and ready for creative thinking time.

If you are on a mission to increase your energy levels throughout the day, start with a good sleep hygiene and aiming to get (ideally) 2 hours of deep sleep. When it comes to diet, staying away from those yummy croissants and starting your day with high protein breakfast will help you get the most out of your prime time. Having a high-protein and fiber-rich lunch can reduce the energy dip in the afternoon. Exercise can also be incredibly beneficial in the afternoon when your energy starts to lower, so taking a brisk walk after lunch or scheduling a walking meeting in the afternoon will help you stay creative and productive. If a cup of coffee (or two or three) a day is your way to boost your energy, keep in mind that caffeine is a physiological arouser — which means that it will amplify whatever emotion you are feeling in that moment. If you’re feeling motivated and you are just entering your peak, it will help you. However, if you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, it will make you feel agitated, which is the last thing you want before embarking on a creative task.

In our chronotype post we emphasized how important it is to show up every day. Here, we suggest that it is important to show up at the right time every day. Get to know your energy curve and block the times when your brain is primed to do great work. Be deliberate about when you engage in deep work and when you do your best creative thinking. Realign with your own energy curve for best performance in both modes.

When it comes to team collaboration, differences in circadian rhythms (chronotypes) present some challenges and some benefits. If you are aware your own and your teams’ energy curves, you can make sure that each team member has their prime time blocked in their calendar at least few times a week. It also means that the early birds can get major progress on the project by 10am while those with a later chronotype can continue from there. When we were writing our book, knowing not just each others’ time zones, but also one another’s prime times, was key for making progress on a five-person team. It helped everyone feel that they productively contributed to the project.

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