Brain, Body, Butt

Body Time

As your mental capabilities fade, your physical abilities improve. In the middle of the day, after your body processes a meal (or when it anticipates eating), you're physically strongest and most flexible. Your hands are also steadiest and you work at your swiftest clip. You body even requires less oxygen to do the same activity you huffed and puffed over earlier.

Go into a meeting and you'll likely crave a siesta or just not grasp what's being said. I've seen meetings where even the presenter had a hard time staying awake, pacing nonstop in an intuitive quest to engage the body.

Studies of swimmers, runners, and rowing crews show afternoon and evening improvements in ability by as much as thirty percent. In the gym you can lift heavier weights; if relocating you can move bigger furniture, and this is the time to try opening that stuck window.

Use the time from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM to work with your hands, move things around, and use your strength and adaptability. Spend this time being active, taking information in through movement and touch.

Butt Time

The afternoon lull arrives around 2:30 PM when you're neither quick to think or smooth to move.

Your ability to concentrate and make decisions is at its daily low, accidents rise to their daytime height, and based on your inner clocks, time actually slows.

This is the ideal time to sit, contemplate, and think laterally rather than deep. Although you may feel too tired to learn any more, biologically, you're primed for rumination and reflection.

Use this time to talk with other people, hear different perspectives and integrate into your thoughts how their responses impact your work. Although this is not the time to convince others, it's well suited to convince yourself. If you do, you'll also remember your plan more accurately because while short-term memory is a whiz in the morning, long-term recall improves later in the day.

Late afternoon arrives with a surprise. Around 4:00 PM you get restless and consequently your speed builds up. Athletically you're near your peak; so is your quickness for addition, multiplication, and even counting on your fingers. Because long-term memory improves with the day, too, ask yourself, "How will I use what I learned today?" and "What implications does this mean to my department?" You're more likely to remember your conclusions tomorrow.

Repeat.

Fortunately, once you pass butt time, some of your mental skills begin to click back in. The three stages repeat their sequence during the evening, nighttime, and early morning hours. This explains why you might feel alert and focused long after everyone else has gone to bed and you sleep restlessly around 3:30 AM.

I know an entrepreneur who when she wants to be creative stays up late, and when she wants to motor through her do-list, gets up early.

During the second brain time, thanks to hormone cycles, your senses are at their peak. Taste, smell, hearing and sight are at their most acute. As your temperature peak around 6:30 PM, your vigilance soars. Navy recruits monitored to determine when they could best detect and respond to a faint signal amid noise, are found to turn in their best performances around this time.

During the second body time, you'll experience the best time to play a musical instrument. With senses tuned, orchestras and folk-guitarists alike record their best performances at night.

During the second butt time, when most people are laying down rather than sitting, your temperature drops and your ability to think clearly and react quickly plunges along with your fire.

The time you require to notice warning signals increases, and your reaction time can fall as much as fifty percent below peak performance. If you're up and around, these are the hours when you're prone to have a driving accident. Your skills at driving will be poorest just before dawn even with the radio on, an early night's sleep behind you, chomping gum, and drinking coffee.