Unlocking Productivity: Syncing Your Body Clock With Your Workflow
As business owners, there are many occasions where we find ourselves up against the clock. While the famous saying goes, ‘Beyonce has the same 24 hours in a day as you’, utilising those 24 hours to your advantage can be a struggle. It’s not uncommon for clients to come to us with the same issue - they have a growing mound of tasks to complete and no time to do it in. Thankfully, with the right tracking, adjustment and scheduling, there are ways to turn things around and find productivity again - no matter how busy you are.
Understanding The Link Between Our Bodies And Our Work
Have you ever sat down to work on a task and found your brain flooded with fog? Or settled in to sort out your accounts and wound up doom-scrolling through Instagram for hours? We may all have the same hours in a day, but it is how we use them that is so important. Our energy levels and productivity fluctuate every 24 hours. As women, this goes even further when you consider things such as cycle syncing and hormone levels. There will be days where, no matter how well-intentioned you set out to be, you just can’t seem to switch into work mode. And hours where the letters on a screen feel like they’re swimming around in front of you.
How Circadian Rhythms and Hormones Impact Your Daily Productivity
When we think of biological clocks, many of us go to sleep. The circadian rhythm is our body’s daily cycle that runs in the background and regulates the timing of biological functions. It is particularly important when it comes to sleep. As the sun sets, our surroundings become darker and the air cools, our bodies begin the process of winding down for the evening. We release the sleep hormone (melatonin) which tells our bodies to slow down processes such as digestion and help us to relax fully. The same happens in reverse in the mornings. Alongside this, the circadian rhythm dictates how alert we feel during the day. Pair this with fluctuating hormones that arise during the different stages of female biological cycles - including luteal, follicular, ovulation and menstruation - and you gain more of an understanding as to why you feel sluggish at different points of the day. There is a wealth of information about this available online but the most important thing to remember is - you can only be as productive as your energy levels allow.
Tips to sync your body with work
So how do we use our body's natural energy levels, optimise them and create a working environment that feels productive? Here are some tips we give our clients:
Track your work week - Print out our Energy vs Tasks worksheet and keep it next to you for a full week. Every time you embark on a new task, jot down how long it took you and what time you started. This is particularly important for daily or repetitive tasks and will give you an understanding of how this fluctuates.
Prioritise rest/sleep - We all know that our energy levels are impacted by sleep. But being strict with your bedtime and rise times will re-align your circadian rhythm and allow you to better predict slumps in energy. Most of us feel this around 3 p.m., which makes this the ideal time to take a break or eat a high-energy snack.
Be considerate of yourself - We’re not robots - we’re human. You’re going to have bad days and off-weeks. You’re also going to have incredibly productive times and days where you feel like you can accomplish everything.
The best thing you can do for your business is to gain a clearer understanding of productivity and how to optimise it. This is something we prioritise a LOT at Flow and something we work on with our clients continuously. If you’re interested in exploring this some more then follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn. Or drop us an email at info@flowbusinessupport.co.uk and let’s see how working with Flow could help you also work with ease.