When it comes to doing cognitive work most adults perform best in the late morning.
Most people are more easily distracted from noon to 4 p.m.
Alertness tends to slump after eating a meal. Sleepiness also tends to peak around 2 p.m., making that a good time for a nap.
For most adults, problems that require open-ended thinking are often best tackled in the evening when they are tired.
Sending emails early in the day helps beat the inbox rush; 6 a.m. messages are most likely to be read.
Reading Twitter at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. can start your day on a cheery note.
If you want your tweets to be re-tweeted, post them between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Posts to Facebook at about 8 p.m. tend to get the most “likes.”
Physical performance is usually best, and the risk of injury least, from about 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
To keep from packing on pounds, experts say, limit food consumption to your hours of peak activity.
Summarized from the Wall Street Journal story, “Your Body’s Best Time for Everything.”
There was a rather scary study done on parole boards in Israel: it found that parole boards were most lenient on cases considered in the morning or after lunch, and toughest late in the day or before lunch. The moral of the story: don't do long, boring meetings with a Big Decision at the end if you can avoid it…
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/study_of_israeli_parole_board_shows_why_good_scheduling_promotes_decisions/
Nice! Maybe I should put this up on my wall so I know when to do what :p
Foo,
Yes, I saw that study. There's a reason I don't ask for things before lunch!
I also try to convince people to eat lunch on time; far too often, people delay lunch because they're "too busy," leading to bad decisions.