You wake up and your brain is already racing with today’s meetings, unread emails, and half-finished projects. Before you’ve even had your first coffee, your day is already off and running.
But could you be using these hours more effectively? According to research by Michael Smolensky and Lynne Lamberg in The Body Clock Guide to Better Health, the early part of the day holds a unique advantage.
Getting your work done early in the day can be beneficial for your overall routine.Credit:
Most people reach peak alertness around 10AM, with their best coordination and mental clarity following soon after. This natural rhythm creates ideal conditions for focused, high-impact work, yet too often, that precious window is lost to email triage, status meetings and low-value busywork.
In my work with professionals and teams across industries, I see the same pattern: brilliant people using their best hours on the least impactful tasks. Over time, this creates a work rhythm that feels rushed, reactive and exhausting.
Not every hour is created equal. The smartest professionals design their day around four energy zones, matching the task to their natural energy, not the clock.
We inherited a workday full of interruptions, inefficiencies and rituals that made sense in another era.
- Proactive (first 2 hours): Use this time for strategy, problem-solving or creative work. This is when your brain is freshest. Writing a proposal, making a big decision, or designing a roadmap? Do it here.
- Reactive (late morning): Energy dips slightly, so it’s a good window for meetings, collaboration, and feedback. It’s still productive, just more social.
- Active (mid-afternoon): Think admin, updates, inbox cleaning. Tasks that don’t need high-level brainpower but still need attention.
- Preactive (late afternoon): Begin the wind-down: review your day, set up tomorrow, and finish anything that needs to be cleared from your mental desk.
You don’t need to follow this perfectly but by noticing your natural energy flow, you’ll get sharper about where your time actually pays off. This is more of a rhythm as opposed to a set of rules. When you align your work with your energy, you stop burning fuel where it’s wasted and start using it where it counts.
One person I coached blocked out 8am to 10am every day as “thinking time”, No calls, meetings or email, just deep work. Within three weeks, she’d cut decision-making time in half and felt more in control than she had in years.
