You will be able to match your tasks to your energy through the day and tell when tiredness has turned into something more serious.
Before you read on, write down two times: the hour this week when focused work felt easiest, and the hour when it felt hardest. Keep the note, because you'll check it against a week of real ratings later and the result can differ from what you expect.
Most people have times of day when focused work feels easier and times when it feels very hard. Some people do their best thinking at 9am, before anyone else is online (an invented example). Others prefer the late evening. Many people know a 3pm slump (also invented) of heavy eyes, rereading the same email three times, and wanting a snack. Hard work planned for that slump hour will probably take twice as long and come out worse.
The pattern differs from person to person. Some people are sharpest in the early morning, some in the late morning, and a smaller number in the evening. Your own pattern can shift with age, with young children, with shift work, and with how well you slept the night before.
You don't need a theory of why energy varies, only a clear picture of your own pattern. The reliable way to get that picture is to observe your energy for a week rather than guess, since what you find can differ from what you assumed.
Priya assumed she was a morning person because she gets up early, so she had been spending the first hour of her day on "the brief". When she tracked her energy, her clearest hours turned out to be 10am to noon, and her first hour of the day was better suited to planning and email.
Lesson 4.1, "Deep work and why shallow work spreads", set out the difference between deep and shallow work. The next step is deciding when each kind belongs in your day.
Deep work is focused, demanding work such as writing, analysis, hard problems, or learning something difficult. Protect your best hours for it. If your job allows, put the daily focus block from lesson 4.4 in those hours too.
Shallow work covers email, chat, admin, forms, filing and routine calls. These tasks need less concentration, so doing them in a slump costs you little, and your lower-energy periods are the right place to move them to.
Marcus found his best window was 10am to noon, which matched the focus block he already had. His lowest point was 2 to 3pm, and on some days that was when he had been doing the late-delivery analysis. He moved the analysis to the morning and put his supplier calls and roster checks in the early afternoon.
You won't always get to choose. A meeting lands in your best hour, or a manager needs something during your slump, and that is acceptable. The aim is to get the default right, so that in most weeks most of your deep work happens when you are most able to do it.
Everyone has tired weeks, such as during a product launch, when a child is sick, or after a month of late nights before an audit, and rest usually brings you back. If your tiredness does not lift with rest, pay attention to it and read the WHO description below with the last few months of your own work in mind.
The World Health Organization (WHO) includes burn-out in its International Classification of Diseases, ICD-11, as an occupational phenomenon, and states that it is not classified as a medical condition. The WHO describes burn-out as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It characterises burn-out by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion increased mental distance from your job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism about it reduced professional efficacy
The WHO is specific that the term refers to the work context. In the WHO's framing, burn-out comes from the work situation and says nothing about personal weakness. Productivity techniques can ease some pressure, but they cannot fix a job that has demanded too much for too long. Sometimes the conversation you need is with your manager about workload, rather than with yourself about time blocks.
Some signs point beyond ordinary work stress, and if any of them describe you, it is time to talk to someone. They include exhaustion, low mood or dread about work that has lasted for weeks, losing interest in things you used to enjoy, sleeping badly most nights, and relying more on alcohol or other things to get through the day.
A doctor is a good first contact, because they can check whether something physical is involved and talk through how you feel. In Singapore, mindline.sg is a starting point for mental health support, with resources and ways to reach help. Your company may also have an employee assistance programme that offers free, confidential counselling, and HR can tell you whether one exists.
This course will not diagnose anything, and it shouldn't. If the description of burn-out above sounds uncomfortably familiar, contact a doctor or start with mindline.sg before you try to fix it with a better schedule.
For everyone else, the useful next step is data. You'll rate your energy at four set times each day for a week, from 1, barely functioning, to 5, sharp and ready for anything. Pick times that fit your day, such as 9am, 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm, and set phone reminders so you don't have to remember. Rate quickly, without overthinking, and add a word or two if something obvious affected it, such as a bad night or a big lunch.
At the end of the week, you'll be able to see your pattern, and your best two hours for focused work will usually stand out. Compare them with the two times you wrote down at the start, then move your deep work into your best hours and your shallow work into the lower ones.
For one week, rate your energy from 1 to 5 at the same four times each day. Then mark the two hours that are best for focused work.
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