Time Management - Marc Mancini

Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters 65
to you? The better you’re able to predict with some certainty
normal events in your day, the easier it will be to adjust your
scheduling to accommodate them.
What’s Your Clock?
A morning person wakes and says, “Rise and shine! Up
and at ’em!”
The night person responds, “Shut up and drop dead.”
Each person marches through the day to the tick of a different
clock. There’s even a science that examines this phenomenon:
chronobiology.
Some of our biological
processes cue our energy
and attention levels. For
this reason, chronobiology
has cultural implications
for time management in
general and prioritizing in
particular. It provides
important clues about how
we should carve out our day.
Chronobiology The science
that studies how the
body’s systems relate to
time. Brain chemistry, enzyme production,
blood-sugar levels, hunger and
satiation, sleep patterns, and even
such arcane physical reactions to time
as jet lag are all subjects of chronobiological
study.
“Morning people” tend to wake easily and fully alert. They
have a noticeable drop in energy in the early afternoon. “Midday
people” are the most suited to the 9-5 schedule common at
most companies, waking most usually between 7 and 8 a.m.
Their energy tends to peak in the early afternoon and they most
likely eat dinner around 7 p.m. “Evening people” sleep late and
tend to wake groggy. They aren’t bothered by early morning
light—they can sleep through almost anything in the morning.
They’re often awake long after others are snug in bed and are
the prime audience for late-night talk shows and vintage movies.
Is it easy to determine whether you’re a morning, mid-day,
or evening person? Not entirely. Energy can wax and wane in
minicycles throughout the day. So try tracking for a week those
times at which you feel most alert and energetic, those when—