An article I cam across yesterday morning spoke on the theory that humans are really only productive for six hours out of the day. For this time period out of the entire day, you are mentally alert and can produce high quality work; for the rest of the day, your brain tires and must work extra hard. Obviously, my six hours of productivity might be completely different from yours—Benjamin Franklin’s views on waking up early always contended with Churchill’s theories on sleeping in [10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work—some of these will surprise you.]

This got me to thinking about what my optimal breakdown for a day would be if I only had to work (or think/innovate) for six hours out of the day—25% of 24 hours. I think graphically, so of course I made a pie chart:

I didn’t want to go into too much detail (à la About A Boy), but the general idea is there. What’s interesting is how structured my day actually turns out to be. What’s even more interesting to me is that the sweet spot of creation time (I didn’t want to call it “work”), is counteracted with three 6-hour chunks of the complete opposite kind of activities: sleep, body work (eating/exercising) and full out relaxing. So for every hour I do of making things, I have to balance it with an hour of (mental) relaxation, an hour of sleep (physical relaxation) and also a
half hour each of eating and exercise (body work?). Whoa.

Figure out your optimal hourly breakdown? Does it look like mine or do you need more sleep? More food? More exercise? Less exercise? Geek out…make a pie chart!

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