When do you do your best work?

[Kermit power]

I work in software sales. It's one of those jobs where you work the hours you need to do to get deals closed, get the commission that makes doing so worthwhile, and also tend to get to pull some of the hours back elsewhere in the quarterly cycle, but it's still essentially a 9-5 sort of job.

This is a complete pain for me, especially when I'm working at home, as I just can't concentrate during the day! I'm OK if I can fill my diary with video conferences, but other than that, I just find myself constantly distracted.

Evenings, on the other hand? It's currently 20:48, I've just taken a quick pause to post this, but will probably crack on for another hour or so. When I'm away in a hotel so don't have to worry about family sociability beyond Whatsapp calls, I'll frequently find myself working until midnight or beyond, just because it always feels like a fog lifts around 7pm, and I settle down to being properly productive. I'd say I can get as much done between 7 and 10pm on any given day as I will between 9 to 5, and frequently better quality too.

Does anyone else find their work clock to be completely out of kilter with "normality"?

I have no idea what causes it! It's certainly not a case of just not being "a morning person", as I have no issues waking up early. In fact, when camping on holiday with natural light doing the waking, it's a positive boon, as I'll invariably be the first person into the freshly cleaned showers at around 06:30 and will quite often get back to the tent as others are emerging for breakfast having been out on my mountain bike for a couple of hours. It's just work that doesn't want to happen until the evenings!

If anyone else does experience this, have you got any strategies for tackling it? Life would certainly be simpler if I could work 9-5 like everyone else and then switch off!

[red_slr]

The only time I struggle is 2-5am. Any other time of the day I am ok. If I am not feeling motivated I throw some RATM full blast for half an hour soon sorts me out

[MitchT]

Clearest thinking from 8am 'till 12 noon. Most creative from about 9pm 'till the early hours of the morning. Afternoons are a waste of time for me - just feel groggy and useless as far as my brain is concerned. Would be a good time to go to the gym and do something physical and "mindless". In reality I'm chained to my desk 'till 5pm so no chance of that.

[Benni]

Five or two minutes before the deadline, often at night.

[FredClogs]

Yep, I probably do 50% of my days output in the first 3 hours of the day. Avoiding starchy carbs and sugar at lunch helps but generally from 3 on in I'm not doing much at all.

[talksthetorque]

The incoming calls tend to calm down bymid afternoon, so it's the last two hours I can get work done without distraction.

But I find I do technical stuff better in the morning and the strategic stuff better in the afternoon.

[bristolbaron]

Too many distractions during the day. If I’ve got solid work to do it starts at 10pm once the wife’s gone to bed and I’d happily keep going until the early hours, getting far more done than if I opened a laptop at 9am.

[jonamv8]

Sounds like me. Sitting down to work at 9pm-midnight i can smash work, in those 3 hours can do far more than I can in a normal 8 hour day.

Im my own boss so sometimes i structure my day like this but often client requirements or deadlines dictate work during 9-5

God knows why

[J4CKO]

When cornered like a rat in a trap

[Otispunkmeyer]

bristolbaron said:

Too many distractions during the day. If I’ve got solid work to do it starts at 10pm once the wife’s gone to bed and I’d happily keep going until the early hours, getting far more done than if I opened a laptop at 9am.

I’m quite lucky where I work because I can basically bunk off home in the middle of the day and work from home. If I have data to sift through or reports to write, I can blaze through it at home but if I stayed at work, it wouldn’t even get started!

Generally work well during days most days, but my best ideas seems to happen at night...or weirdly, whilst driving home. Many a time I’ve solved a difficult problem in my head just sat in my car on the motorway (usually after scratching my head all day and coming up empty!).

[jurbie]

Same for me, I really struggle in the morning but from about 3pm I just seem to get through one task after another non-stop. I work from home so will often keep going into the evening however if I have had a productive morning then I try and stop around 5pm but it just feels wrong.

[eltax91]

Software sales here too. SE rather than AM though which is a little different.

Like you I work from home a lot. I find myself most productive if I’ve a call/ webex late morning, my head seems to switch on to get everything levelled our before the call. Then I can close actions taken in the call immediately afterwards.

I find afternoon I’m far less able to concentrate and in the evenings I largely switch off unless it’s mid last month of the quarter when I’m usually busier than normal so I’m working in the evenings too. (if I’m still talking tech last 3 days of the qtr I’m wasting my time, it ain’t coming in anyway!!)

Like you though, once I’m in a hotel time goes out the window and for some reason that environment leaves me able to smash work out and to a high standard pretty much all night and into the early hours if needed.

[designforlife]

8am until 11am.

[bloomen]

1-6am. Then it's bedtime. People up at the crack of dawn are super creeps.