Oh dear, I’m done for. I’ve just read a study that says that the single most productive time of the entire year is a Monday morning, in October, at 11 a.m.
So here I am, on an October Monday morning, and what have I got to show?
Not much. A few words scribbled on a scrap of paper; some crumpled-up grocery receipts; a rubber band; wrappers from throat lozenges; and no column!
I don’t dispute that October should be a productive month. It lines up with going “back to school,” and the end of summer.
But what’s with that 11 a.m. thing? Don’t we all reach our peak productivity at different times of day? In fact, a New York Times reporter named Alex Williams earned my gratitude for writing about being an under-appreciated night owl:
“I have heard this all my life: Society likes morning people. … Everyone else is lazy or self-indulgent. But what if they are wrong? What if night owls are actually the unsung geniuses?”
Some people are natural night owls, he reminds us, and others are natural “larks.” Our body clocks, sleep cycles and body temperatures are hours apart.
So it would stand to reason that we’d have vastly different times for being productive.
Ever since high school, I’ve done better with night-time assignments. I liked the overnight editing shifts when I worked in television. It was actually a relief when most of the staff went home, and I could hear myself think.
And yet… now that I’m a writer and my schedule’s my own, there does seem something magical about late morning.
One time I hit the wrong button on my computer, and it showed me the times when every single one of my documents had been “saved.” And a shockingly large number of them were at 11 a.m.!
It’s the Monday part of this equation that’s giving me trouble.
Everybody knows that Monday is for starting in on the To Do lists you’ve been making all weekend.
But most of those items have nothing to do with work! They’re all about “Make doctor appointments/Call bank about mystery charges/Start holiday gift shopping/Clean tablecloth for Thanksgiving.”
Personal stuff, is what I’m saying. I don’t know anybody who gets any work of significance done on Monday morning!
Because if you can do that, why aren’t you getting just as much done on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday?
No. Monday is for looking busy while actually doing something else.
So here I am, with this Monday morning deadline… wondering what a productive person would do?
What, say, would Laura Vanderkam do? She wrote “What The Most Successful People Do At Work.”
Her earlier book was “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.” At least that one had a picture of a cup of coffee on the cover. I expect we’ll soon see “What the Most Successful People Do In Retirement…” with a picture of some white-haired guy hang-gliding off a cliff. “…But Not For Long!”
Ms. Vanderkam is big on To Do lists — for your daily, yearly, and life-time goals. Personal goals, too.
She writes of a business executive who makes notes of such things as “Daughter has big exam today.” That way, when he gets home, he’s all set to ask the daughter how it went. Or he might notice that she’s in her room, sobbing, and ask what’s the matter?
Vanderkam is the kind of person who goes on six-mile runs — even when she’s not in the mood! — and forces her running partner to help “hash out the outline for this book.”
She wants us to use down times like being online at the grocery store to fire off “Task lists” to other people. I don’t want to be behind that person…or to work for her, either.
Finally, I have found someone to whom I would actually recommend Yoga! Surely they would make Vanderkam turn off her phone, and discourage her from yammering about her next book to the woman innocently attempting “Downward Dog” on the next mat over.
I read this book so you don’t have to.
All you need to do is make detailed To Do Lists; check things off every night; make a new one for tomorrow. And then Do Things!
It’s a wonder I don’t have a million dollars already!
What I do have is a finished column. Just in time to knock off for lunch!
