The surprising time of day you’re most creative

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creativity. Part of the wonderful nature of being creative is that it’s a unique journey for each individual. 

That uniqueness extends to the time and place in which creativity occurs. Do you struggle to keep your eyes open past 9 p.m.? Well, you’re a kindred spirit to French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who—at odds with his candlelight-loving historical peers—always created his impressionist works in the afternoon. Twentieth-century American author Gertrude Stein wrote only at night, burning the midnight oil until sunrise. Her art-world contemporary, Irish painter Francis Bacon, drank alcohol from the afternoon through the evening but would rise early in the morning to break out his brushes, evidently feeling a heightened sense of clarity while hungover.

Indeed, people’s creative juices flow at different times. This is true for artistic geniuses and business-world standouts. Canva surveyed 3,700 global leaders about the tools and environments that best support creative work and uncovered several interesting insights, including the days of the week and times of day when participants in the poll got their best thinking done.

Here is an exclusive look at the findings, and what we can learn from this comparative analysis.

Top of Monday morning or “Fri-yay”?

As a company leader, creative technologist, and forever-budding DJ, my most creative stints happen in the dead of night when I know there are no other souls around and I can really focus on exploration. 

Does my late-night preference make me like my peers, or am I an outlier? It’s a mixed bag.

According to the survey data, it’s clear that business leaders have their own distinct “creative hours.” For instance, 35% of leaders report feeling most creative early on Monday morning, and 43% feel inspired during mid- and late morning on Mondays, but then creativity gradually wanes as the day progresses. The rest of the week sees a steady increase in creativity as the day moves beyond the morning, with late morning being a popular creative time on Tuesdays (46%), early afternoon on Wednesdays (37%), and midafternoon on Thursdays (35%).

But here’s a counterintuitive finding: Business leaders—potentially with weekend plans on their minds, or fewer meetings on the calendar—are actually most creative on Fridays compared to every other day of the week. In fact, at least one-third stated they were most creative on Friday afternoon (34%) and evening (33%). Those stats indicate a new reason to say “TGIF.”

The upshot: Creative patterns shift throughout the week, getting later in the day as the week progresses. More specifically, leaders should consider setting brainstorming sessions on Monday morning, later in the day midweek, and on Fridays to optimize creativity with their teams. Making space on daily and weekly calendars for these creative patterns can be a professional’s secret sauce for doing their best work. People are getting more thoughtful about when they’re at their best during the day; for instance, the rise of movements like the “4 a.m. club” indicates a larger interest in making intentional shifts to optimize creativity and mental performance.  

Weekend warriors have ideas, too

Business leaders often feel more creative during the workweek, but creativity levels remain high on weekends as well. Specifically, Saturdays are just as productive in terms of creativity as Mondays, with leaders maintaining a strong sense of innovation throughout the day.

What’s more, leaders feel more creative on weekend evenings than Monday through Thursday after-hours, with Friday (33%), Saturday (34%), and Sunday (33%) evenings ranking on top for that time of day.

The upshot: Saturday and Sunday nights seem to provide a relaxed yet productive atmosphere conducive to creativity, similar to the fresh start of a new workweek. The above stats also suggest reduced work pressures and more personal time free up the mind for new ideas.

More inspiration drives purpose

The weekend activity probably should not be surprising. We all know that in many professions today weekdays mean back-to-back-to-back meetings, which can make a free flow of creative thinking challenging.

Protecting time for teams to do deep, creative thinking should be a goal when establishing workplace culture and ways of working. It should be operationalized with time on everyone’s calendar blocked off for creative thinking. This engenders not only bottom-line success but also better employee engagement, retention, and recruiting. 

Creativity is also important because it helps give folks purpose, which I’d argue is increasingly important in the hybrid work era. After all, a Gallup poll last year found that only 28% of employees strongly agreed they felt connected to their organization’s mission and purpose, tying a record low from 2011.

Operationalizing for a little more “genius”

Having this data at hand is a useful tool for helping to unlock your team’s creativity, but it also highlights to me that understanding yourself is crucial to finding the ways of working that enable you to be a creative leader. Whether you’re a night owl or a lark, intentionally shaping your week to maximize those creative cadences is one of the most powerful things you can do, rather than jamming in a creative sprint amid other peoples’ calendar requests.

Understanding how the daily clock and weekly calendar impact our creativity can unlock many benefits. Embracing these insights, companies can foster environments that align with natural creative flows, ultimately operationalizing more effective and inspired outcomes. 

Policies will vary from one company or group to the next. But based on the new survey data, business leaders should consider putting no-meeting zones on the calendar—brainstorming sessions only—for times such as early morning until late morning on Mondays. By aligning no-meeting zones with these peak creative times for brainstorming, business leaders can help establish an environment that fosters creativity and innovation.

Some of the benefits will be incremental—business leaders cannot expect to be transformed into Renoir, Stein, or Bacon. But they can still increasingly move the needle on their personal productivity and organizational strategy, one day at a time.