Latest news with #morningRoutine
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Best Time To Work: Align Tasks With Your Circadian Rhythm
Shot of a young businessman taking a break at his desk Have you ever wondered why some parts of the day feel easier than others? Why does your mind function best in the morning, yet reading an email after lunch can feel overwhelming? The answer lies in your circadian rhythm—your body's internal clock that regulates energy levels, alertness, and cognitive performance throughout the day. Just as your energy levels fluctuate throughout the day, different activities require different types of energy. The key is to find the best time to work on each activity. In my book Timebox, I explore how aligning your schedule with your natural rhythm isn't just beneficial for your health—it's a game-changer for your productivity and well-being. Let's examine the best times of day for various types of work based on how your brain and body actually operate. Your brain is sharpest in the morning, especially during the first few hours after waking up. This is your Power Time, ideal for tasks that require deep focus, strategic thinking, and willpower—like planning, writing, decision-making, and studying. Use these early hours to work on your most important goals—not email. Your willpower is at its maximum, so use this time to tackle tasks that require a lot of self-discipline. You perform at your best physically either early in the morning, when your mind is sharp, or in the late afternoon before dinner, when your body feels warm and flexible. Schedule your workout for the early morning, ideally between 5 and 7am, or around 5 to 7pm before dinner. If you are in a super busy schedule and dedicating aa full hour to a workout seems out of reach, research from Google and Fitbit shows that keeping your body active even for 10–15 minutes of distributed activity can combat fatigue, increase energy, and enhance focus. After lunch, you may notice a dip in your energy levels and cognitive sharpness. This period is perfect for handling routine or administrative tasks that require less mental exertion, like replying to emails, arranging meetings, or updating documents. Consider this as your body's 'maintenance mode.' As the day progresses, your brain grows more divergent and creative. When you begin to feel a bit tired, you tend to restrain your thoughts less, which boosts brainstorming, content generation, and innovative thinking. Use late afternoon to do more creative work or uncover the blockers you found in the morning. After dinner your brain begins to slow once more. Your willpower reaches its lowest ebb. This offers an excellent opportunity to absorb content instead of creating it. Consider reading a book, listening to a podcast, reflecting on your day, or journaling your thoughts. The best time to schedule One-on-Ones is mid-morning (9:30–11:00 a.m.), when energy remains high and individuals have had a chance to settle in. Such meetings tend to be more focused, productive, and emotionally connected. The best time for Team Meetings is Late morning (10:00–12:00) or early afternoon (1:00–3:00 p.m.). If the aim is high attendance, YouCanBookMe's research suggests that the best time and day is around 2:30 on a Tuesday. Calendly research shows that Wednesday was the most popular day for work meetings, while Tuesday was the most popular day for virtual meetings. If you engage in training or competition twice weekly, plan those sessions for the morning when you feel most alert. Use the remaining three mornings for your most critical tasks. This schedule allows you to maximize both your physical energy and mental clarity while avoiding burnout. I've observed that my optimal performance in sports occurs between 8 and 10 AM, and I cannot train too early or without having breakfast. Therefore, I dedicate three mornings to focused work and two mornings to intense exercise. Time management isn't just about discipline—it's about working with your biology, not against it. By respecting your circadian rhythm and finding the best time to work on each activity, you'll reduce stress, avoid burnout, and accomplish more with less effort.
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hilarious recreation of Wallace and Gromit morning routine goes viral... but it took a whole year of planning
An inventor has recreated the iconic Wallace and Gromit morning routine complete with self-making toast and jam in a project that has been in the works for the past year. Joseph Herscher, 40, recreated the classic scene from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, in which Wallace builds an elaborate machine to simplify his morning routine. In total, it took him two months to complete the project and two full days of filming to create the now 29-second scene. After spotting his viral inventions online a year ago, the creators of the Wallace and Gromit Aardman Animations reached out to Joseph and offered him a tour, which sparked his decision to go ahead with this project. Having been a fan of the British series since his younger years, Joseph, who has been a full-time inventor and YouTuber for over 12 years, said 'it felt like a childhood dream come to life.' 'I have wondered about how this invention could be made since I first saw the film in 1993,' he said. 'It took about two months on and off to get it to a point where we could go ahead and film it.' He added: 'This project really meant a lot more to me than some of my other ones. 'Having been an Aardman fan since I was a kid, this really felt like I was fulfilling every little inventor's dream.' To play Gromit, Joseph, who is based in London, hired a dog named Archie who underwent a few training sessions to learn his role. This involved pushing a button to catapult the jam onto a piece of toast as it pops out of a toaster. As the project got underway, it became clear that two key elements were going to be hardest to perfect: sliding down into the trousers and catapulting jam across a table to land on a slice of toast. With the trousers, Joseph quickly realised the drop was much higher than expected. Joseph said: 'I realised I wouldn't feel good or safe dropping straight down from that height so we hung a bar that was connected to pullies on a counterweight. 'This meant it could lower me in a more controlled and gradual way before dropping me in the trousers.' The inventor ended up doing 65 takes to perfect the toast and jam stunt. In the original cartoon, Wallace has a contraption that times the toast popping up with jam flying across the table to land on it precisely. It took Joseph a lot of trial and error - and a bit of chemistry - to prevent the jam from splattering everywhere. Joseph said: 'The jam really did feel like the hardest part of the whole project. 'I realised early on that if I catapulted it as it is, it would just fly everywhere instead of aiming directly for the toast. 'So, I mixed sodium alginate in with the jam before placing it into a bowl of water that has calcium lactate in it. 'Because these two chemicals don't get along, the jam forms a sort of hard skin around it which keeps it in a spherical shape.' Wallace and Gromit fans couldn't hide their excitement in the comments section of the viral TikTok video, which has more than 190million views. One person asked: 'How many hours of jam-based bloopers did this have?' 'No one will ever understand how much I wanted one of these when I was little,' a second person said. A third person wrote : 'I've worked on the film and IMMEDIATELY shared it with the rest of the animators. This is incredible!'
