A Single Principle That Will Help You Get the Most Out of Your Peak Hours of Productivity

What if I told you that there is one principle that you can adopt today that will dramatically increase your productivity?

Just following this single principle can help you get the most out of your peak hours of productivity – the hours where you have the most energy and focus during the day.

It is a very simple principle: “pay” yourself first.

Pay yourself first with your time, energy and attention.

In the personal finance world, people are advised to take care of their future selves by setting aside money for their savings and investments first and then paying everyone else later with what is leftover.

What if we adopted a similar principle and paid our future selves first with the best of our time, energy and attention?

The comparison is not perfect, because we cannot bank away time to be used later.

However, paying yourself first ensures that your ambitions and vision do not receive the leftovers of your time, energy and attention.

Here are three easy steps you can take this week to pay yourself first and get the most out of your peak hours of productivity  

1. Define your “biological primetime” aka your peak hours of productivity

You may be wondering, “what is biological primetime?” We intuitively know that there are certain periods within a day where we have more energy and focus. This time period is your “biological primetime” – a time period where you have the most amount of energy, focus and attention. It is your peak hours of productivity or your “golden hours” productivity.

The term originates from the book Work the System by Sam Carpenter. Having a sense of your “biological primetime” is a good start, but not enough. Knowing the exact hours, however, is required to truly pay yourself first.

To discover your peak hours of productivity, you pick a day where you will abstain from stimulants (e.g. coffee) and depressants (e.g. alcohol) and track your energy and focus every hour during the day. You can use a 0 to 10 scale, with 0 being extremely low energy and focus and 10 being extremely high energy and focus. At the end of your day, you take an assessment of the time period where you had the highest energy and focus.

Once you have learned and discovered your peak productive hours then you can move on to step two.

2. Block out at least 20% of your time (at your peak energy and attention) each day to get your most important work done

People who are able achieve their savings goal usually reserve a minimum of 20% of their salary for their savings. They also increase their chances for success by doing automatic transfers into their savings.

Similarly, you can pay yourself first by blocking the time on your calendar and scheduling at least 20% of your time for activities that will advance your ambitions and vision. This time that you reserve should be within the beginning of your “biological primetime” or peak hours of productivity.

Let’s consider an example. Let’s say that your biological primetime is 8am to 12pm and that you usually work 8 hours in a typical day. At minimum, you should pay yourself with the first 1.5 hours (8am-9:30am) to work on activities that are essential to your professional vision and advancement. Ideally, because 8am to 12pm are your peak hours of productivity, that entire time period should be protected only for activities that require energy and focus and are essential to your career development and advancement. However, if you do not have that flexibility and autonomy with your time, then the minimum would be the first 1.5 hours (or 20%) of your workday.

Your wellness is essential to your ability to recharge your energy and attention. Therefore, when paying yourself, be strategic about how you can incorporate exercise, prayer, meditation, etc. into the activities that you are doing during your biological primetime.

You can automate this process – as is done in savings – by automatically blocking off a minimum of 20% of peak productive hours on your calendar for yourself.

You may ask why I am recommending a minimum of 20%? According to Pareto’s principle (aka the 80/20 rule), 20% of our work drives 80% of our outcomes. So, paying yourself first by saving a minimum of 20% of your peak hours of productivity to do your most valuable and important work can truly help you become more productive in a meaningful way.  

3. Set boundaries and expectations for others  

People borrow and infringe on our time with unnecessary emails that they expect responses to and agenda-less meetings that seemingly require our presence and much more. All of this occurs when we do not have boundaries around our time and set proper expectations for others to follow.  

Now that you have committed to paying yourself first, create boundaries and set appropriate expectations for those around you. Let others know that you are not available for meetings during your protected hours. Let them know that you will not answer emails or phone calls during this time, etc. As you establish these boundaries and expectations, people will begin to accommodate your schedule rather than the reverse.

As women, we juggle so many roles. We accommodate and sacrifice for the needs of others. In some cases, this is needed—especially if you have children. However, in many instances, it is expected from others, but not essential. If we pay others first, we are left with no energy and focus for ourselves. This leads to stress, demoralization and burn out.

By paying ourselves first, not only will we be more productive – i.e. get things done that are valuable to us – but we will also be able to recharge and have more to give to our loved ones.  

You don’t deserve the leftovers of your time, energy and attention. You deserve the premium rate, so pay yourself first.