Chronotypes and Energy Levels
Episode 8 explores how to optimize your schedule so morning people, night owls, and everyone in between can be productive.
Many of us dream of becoming morning people. Quiet sunrises, peaceful coffee sips, and productivity before the world wakes up hold an almost-moral appeal. Yet, despite these aspirations, reality often doesn't align with our internal clocks. If you've repeatedly struggled with mornings, it's likely not a question of willpower but rather your chronotype, your body's built-in biological clock that dictates when you're naturally alert or sleepy. And whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, understanding your chronotype and using that knowledge to shape your schedule can dramatically improve your productivity – and even your health!
Understanding Your Chronotype
Your chronotype is mostly determined by age and genetics. While you can adapt slightly with lifestyle changes, your innate preference is mostly fixed. As we age, though, our chronotypes shift. As most parents know, young children naturally wake up early, then as we enter our teenage years, our natural wakeup time shifts about two hours later. From there, we slowly shift to earlier and earlier chronotypes, about 15-20 minutes per decade, explaining why seniors, like toddlers, frequently wake up at dawn.
For working age adults, researchers have identified three core chronotype categories: morning larks, night owls, and those balanced in between.
Around 40% of working-age people are natural morning larks. They wake up early, often without alarms, and experience peak productivity between 10 AM and noon. They're energized by morning routines and fade by early evening.
On the flip side, about 30% of working age adults are night owls. They prefer waking later and hit their peak productivity between 2 PM and 4 PM, often experiencing a creative second wind around 7 or 8 PM.
The remaining 30% fall somewhere in the middle, enjoying flexibility without strong preferences for morning or evening hours.
Society's schedule often reflects the preferences of those in charge, who are typically older and wake up earlier. So night owls, though a significant portion of the population, can struggle with societal expectations built around early schedules.
The mismatch between personal chronotypes and societal expectations can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, negatively affecting mood, health, and productivity. Studies, including the groundbreaking chronotype survey conducted in Munich in 1976, have shown clear biological roots for these preferences. Turns out there’s a biological reason senior managers are always complaining about young employees being lazy and wanting to sleep in!
Optimizing Your Productivity Based on Your Chronotype
Once you identify your chronotype, regardless of which one it is, strategically organizing your tasks around your natural energy cycles can significantly boost productivity.
As you’d expect, you generally want to work on projects that require analytical thinking or long stretches of deep, focused work during your peak energy hours. If you’re going to be making major decisions, whether on your own or in a meeting, you’ll generally be better at it when your energy levels are high rather than when they begin to flag.
Interestingly though, recent research from the National University of Singapore suggests that creative work might be best done outside of your peak energy times. Their working theory is that reduced executive function during lower-energy times of day also reduces self-criticism and self-censoring. So your mind spends more time considering high variance ideas, which can lead to breakthroughs.
That means morning larks should reserve intensive analytical work for late morning, around 10 AM to noon, with creative or administrative tasks scheduled for the afternoon.
Night owls, on the other hand, should save deep analytical tasks for their natural peak hours in the mid-afternoon, roughly between 2 PM and 4 PM. Creative or routine tasks are best tackled during your second energy peak, later in the evening, or during the groggy early morning hours.
Practical Tips for Better Sleep and Productivity
To support your chronotype, you’ll want to follow sleep best practices, nothing crazy, just the kind of boring advice basically every credible medical resource provides. From an energy-levels standpoint, the single most important element of that is maintaining a consistent wake-up time, even on weekends. Consistent means “within an hour or two” rather than a rigid tiny window - it’s okay to sleep a little late some days.
More irregular sleep than that schedule create "social jet lag," making you feel continually tired, much like real jet lag. To minimize this, if you have a really late night, consider opting for a short afternoon nap instead of oversleeping. Naps are underrated: Einstein was known for napping daily, and NASA performed research that showed a 20 minute nap (set your alarm for 30 minutes) can make an enormous improvement in long-haul pilot capabilities.
There are a couple more high-impact, low-effort sleep tips: limiting screen time two hours before bed, especially blue-light-emitting devices like smartphones and tablets, significantly improves sleep quality. If screen time can't be avoided, enable warmer, yellow-toned night modes. Choose a distant TV over a closer tablet for your late night binge watching.
Finally, morning sunlight exposure, especially in the receptors located at the bottom of your eyes, also plays a vital role. That morning light helps reset your circadian rhythm. So consider a morning walk.
Supporting Your Team
In workplaces, optimal scheduling means balancing individual chronotypes with team needs. One optimization is from establishing a reduced set of core hours when all team members must be available. That leaves the rest of the schedule flexible so employees can choose to work at the peaks of their individual productivity, like early in the mornings or late in the afternoons.
Ideally, create a weekly schedule for your team that includes a stretch of 2-3 meeting-free hours during one or two mornings and one or two afternoons per week. That way, both night owls and morning larks can find time to get into flow state for their deepest work.
Finally, if you have a mission-critical meeting, 3pm is the absolute best time to schedule it. Night owls are at their peak energy levels, and morning larks typically hit a second wind after a 1-2:30 lull.
Tip of the Week
If you don’t already know whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, take the "Five-Item Ultra-Short Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ)," a simple tool to determine your natural sleep and wake preferences. Once you know your chronotype, spend a week tracking your energy levels throughout the day, identifying peak productivity and creativity windows. Adjust your schedule accordingly, and you'll likely see a noticeable improvement in your efficiency and overall wellbeing.
To learn more, listen to the full podcast episode.