I recently read the book when by author Dan pink in a 2-hour window every day doctors are more likely to give patients a fatal dose of anesthesia before surgery in the same two hours Danish students score significantly lower on standardized exams and CEOs of publicly traded companies are more likely to say something stupid in a quarterly earnings call and cause their stock price to plummet can you guess what time of day this is it's 2 p. m. to 4 p.
m. surveys of knowledge workers in the United Kingdom reveal that the most unproductive time of the day is precisely 255 p. m.
right in between 2 p. m. and 4 p.
m. author Dan pink calls this time the Bermuda Triangle of the day in the two hours of the day between the time most people wake up 7 a. m.
and fall asleep 11 p. m. intelligence sound judgment and productivity mysteriously vanish to understand why your intelligence your judgment and your productivity are scientifically proven to decrease midday you need to understand your biological clock that scientists call your circadian rhythm you see your body follows a daily rhythm controlled by an internal clock in your brain your internal clock triggers a release of hormones like cortisol melatonin which help you wake up in the morning and fall asleep at night but your internal clock also triggers a rise and fall in attention and mental ability throughout the day upon waking up every day your attention and mental ability goes through a peak trough and rebound over the course of the next 16 hours the trough occurs approximately seven to eight hours after you wake up which is usually between 2 p.
m. and 4 p. m.
the best thing you can do at the beginning of the daily trough is to take a nap author Dan pink says in many ways naps are Zamboni's for our brains they smooth out the NICS the scuffs and the scratch is a typical day has left on our mental ice the best nap you can take is between 10:00 20 minutes that's right 10 in 20 minutes is all you need a five minute nap has no effect but a ten minute nap is scientifically proven to increase mental alertness for three hours in the book Dan pink says Italian police officers who took naps before their afternoon and evening shifts had 48 percent fewer traffic accidents than those who didn't nap NASA pilots air traffic controllers and computer programmers routinely take naps to boost performance pink recommends a particularly powerful type of nap called the Napa Chino to take at Napa Chino consume a cup of coffee or a caffeinated a cup of tea and then put your sleep mask on your ear plugs in and lay down for 10 to 20 minutes the caffeine won't enter your bloodstream for about 20 to 25 minutes so you'll have enough time to restore your mental abilities and then wake up alert and ready to do your best work now if your work environment doesn't allow you to take a nap during the afternoon trough you should at least avoid doing any important work and instead only execute familiar and mundane tasks when I'm unable to take a midday nap I like to sort my notes clean my house update my website and run some errands but if you absolutely must do important work make sure that you're following a step-by-step checklist to avoid making costly mistakes because remember in the trough you are prone to making costly mistakes ideally your most important work should be reserved for the time before and after the trough when your attention Peaks and rebounds the science reveals that the type of work you should do during the peak is different than the work you should do during the rebound all important work falls into two categories logical work and insight work logical work is typically completed using the left side of the brain whereas associated with logical tasks include clarify organize explain structure examples of logical work include programming reading a legal brief taking a math test or solving logical problems here's an example of a problem from the book that is best solved in a logical work mode it's called the Linda problem Linda is 31 years old single outspoken and very bright in college linda majored in philosophy as a student she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice and participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations before I tell you more about Linda let me ask you a question about her which is more likely a Linda is a bank teller or B Linda's a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement researchers have found that people are more likely to answer this question correctly in the morning than they are in the evening to get the answer right at 9:00 a. m. but get it wrong at 8:00 p.
m.
