DEV Community

What time of day is peak energy and focus for you?

Ben Halpern on February 26, 2024

And has this changed over time or has it always been about the same?

Collapse
 
terabytetiger profile image
Tyler V. (he/him)

From 6:45AM - 11AM is peak, if I'm actively invested in the project I'm working on, afternoons and evenings can be fine too, but if it's after 11AM and I'm not particularly interested in a project it's a struggle to work on things.

Collapse
 
moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

5PM-7PM seems to be my sweet spot, which unfortunately clashes with Life Things.

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

How often do you find yourself taking advantage of this flow β€” do you do anything to try and be productive during these times or just not worry about it because of life?

Collapse
 
moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

Well, I encouraged my partner to take charge of feeding the cats in the evening, and in my last home I put on headphones so I didn't hear them demanding food or the neighbours coming and going.

I find that as I get older I lose the flow much more easily and it can be pretty depressing to have gone all day without achieving much, and start getting in the swing of things towards the end of the day, just to have it all collapse because the doorbell goes and another package arrives.

I deliberately don't check my email until I have a convenient stopping point, and tell people that unless it's urgent they shouldn't call me after 4ish. Teams chat only.

And I know, I know, Teams is the source of great deal of misery itself. We use what our corporate overlords dictate we use!

Collapse
 
mistval profile image
Randall

Probably around 10 AM to noon. I think I've always been that way, but it's especially true now since I work remotely for a (US) west coast company, while living on the east coast, so I don't have many distractions before noon since my coworkers on the west coast are still waking up.

Collapse
 
youngfra profile image
Fraser Young

Morning person checking in

Collapse
 
avanichols profile image
Ava Nichols

Same

Collapse
 
andriimz profile image
Andrii

same

Collapse
 
ryencode profile image
Ryan Brown

Normally about 2pm-5pm on a Friday. Instead of mentally winding down, that seems to be when I finally get traction on a work project. It's rather inconvenient.

Also, sometime between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM. I rouse from sleep and suddenly have the top two or three coding / DevOps issues running through my brain and being "Solved" or at least getting ideas and plans started. Sometimes I can get back to sleep and forget the whole mess, sometimes I can't. I usually wake up at 5:15 AM regardless of any alarm or opportunity to sleep in, so at least I usually have a few hours before the rest of the household and world wakes up to get some stuff done on my own without much interruption (unless the cat wants more attention than is warranted; he has a sleeping box on my desk to save my keyboard πŸ˜ΊπŸ’€βŒ¨)

Collapse
 
skyloft7 profile image
Mohammed

I don't know why but it seems to be early morning, like 3 AM. (Disclaimer: This is super unhealthy). Sometimes I'd have to pull all nighters and I'd get really tired but march on anyway.

I think all the screen time's got to me.

Collapse
 
aileenr profile image
Aileen Rae

In the workday I definitely prefer being productive and focussed in the morning, which I keep up from 9 until lunch at 12:30 if I take movement breaks and stay hydrated and caffeinated. I tend to slump after lunch and prefer to do more social and ad hoc work like meetings, responding to Slack questions, pair programming etc.

Unfortunately my team at work schedules meetings in the morning so the afternoon is free for focus work. πŸ™ƒ I get by with extensive use of body doubling videos, pomodoro timers and rain and thunderstorm sounds, but it's challenging working against your body's rhythms.

Collapse
 
destynova profile image
OisΓ­n

Round midnight... until around 4am. Unfortunately it's not really a practical inclination due to kids, social and other constraints. If I didn't have those, I would automatically gravitate from normal daytime routine towards waking up in the late afternoon and coding at night.
When I started learning programming as a teenager in the 1990s, I remember seeing the sun rise for the second day in a row without sleeping... Definitely not healthy, so it's good to have those outside connections to keep you on the level.

Collapse
 
reprodev profile image
Repro Dev

I don't know why but 10.30am I seem to just get into a groove

Collapse
 
sorosbo profile image
BorbΓ‘la SΓΆrΓΆs

As a university student, I prided myself on being a night owl and started working on priority tasks only after 18:00. This gave me little time to complete them, and I often would feel guilty because of that.
As soon as I started working full-time, I quickly realized that I'm a morning person who does her best work from 08:00-10:00.
As I'm getting older, calm mornings are the foundation of my day. I wake up without an alarm, walk the dogs, have breakfast, and start working around 9:00 or 10:00. I can get into a flow state any time of the day, and walking the dogs four times a day gives me healthy breaks. I feel this is the most balanced way of working for me.

Collapse
 
srinua542 profile image
Srinu Alla

10AM - 1PM and also I find Wednesday is 2x day for me.

Collapse
 
brense profile image
Rense Bakker

Peak energy depends on the mood of my colleagues ;p focus usually before 9am and after 5pm xD

Collapse
 
seandinan profile image
Sean Dinan

Pretty much everything besides ~2pm - 3:30pm. That's the energy no man's land.

Collapse
 
anitaolsen profile image
Anita Olsen • Edited

All morning. I have been a morning person since forever. The early bird gets the worm!

Collapse
 
iamak profile image
Ajithkumar P S

Early morning gives me the focus, distractions free.

Collapse
 
michalispapamichael profile image
Michalis Papamichael

when am about to check out for some weird reason.

Collapse
 
randellbrianknight profile image
Randell Brian Knight

Every Wednesday at 10:00 AM πŸ˜›

Collapse
 
raguram90 profile image
RamR

comfortable working mood mostly at morning , sometimes evening after 6pm. But peak energy comes few times in a month.

Collapse
 
xet7 profile image
Lauri Ojansivu

Evening. Sometimes night.

Collapse
 
schalkneethling profile image
Schalk Neethling

I would say starting at around 8 PM. πŸ¦‰

Collapse
 
fpaghar profile image
Fatemeh Paghar

I'm most comfortable and focused after 9:00 AM

Collapse
 
anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

Late night. LOL!

Collapse
 
darius410 profile image
Darius

For me between 9 am to 1pm is when I got my gears working.after that my brain goes somewhere else

Collapse
 
itscosmas profile image
Cosmas Gikunju

Am actually flexible with my preference being a quiet time of day, extremely late in the night or very early in the morning.

Collapse
 
raldincasidar profile image
Raldin Casidar

My peak hours is on 10pm to 3am. IDK but I love working when everyone is asleep and the world is so quiet.

Collapse
 
vahidn profile image
Vahid Nasiri

I have more focus at nights. It will become maximum after midnight, but ... it's not a healthy habit!