At the moment I am reading When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H Pink. It is an interesting read into the science behind energy, time and timing.

As of now I am trying out two things from the book. The first one is tracking my days to see how my mental and physical energy change over the course of a day. Pink recommends doing this over a period of a week, and here I find his perspective being a bit at a fault. Pink seems to only take into account the time/energy cycle of men (which is 24 hours) and post-menopausal women. Fertile women have a cycle of (more or less than) 28 days which consists of four different phases that impact our energy levels. Therefor I will do the tracking for a month instead of a week. The reason behind tracking our energy is so we can use our hours in the best possible way, and to not push ourselves when we least need it.

The second thing I am trying out is how to take proper breaks. As a freelancer working from home, it is easy to work longer time slots than necessary. One study Pink refers to says that an optimum work break frequency might be to work for 52 minutes and then have a break for 17 minutes. He also speaks highly of a modernized siesta. Since my afternoon dip occurs around 2 pm-3.30 pm I am playing with the idea to have an hour or so off to do nourishing things during this time, say be in the garden or take a long walk.

It’s a fascinating read that begs the question, is there a different way of living our days?

Johanna