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How to find your personal peak productivity window (based on science)

Author

Diego Carrete
November 05, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Hello amigo,

Today, my message to you is clear:

Forget the 5 AM Club

I’ll show you how to leverage scientific insights on circadian rhythms and hormones to discover your optimal “Flow time”—the time of day when you’re naturally at your best.

Before we dive in, let me share something personal: I used to think I was lazy because I couldn’t stick to those 5 a.m. routines everyone seems to swear by. But then I realized I wasn’t lazy at all—I was just working against my DNA, not with it.

If you’ve ever felt the same, let me assure you, it’s not your fault, and you’re definitely not lazy.

You just need to find your own “Flow time.”

Step 1: Identify Your Melatonin Peak

  • What It Is: Melatonin, the sleep hormone, rises in the evening to prepare you for rest. About 1–3 hours after you first feel drowsy, melatonin reaches its peak.

day inhibits melatonin, night stimulates it

Why This Matters:

Knowing this time will help you understand your body’s natural rhythm and find your ideal focus time the next day.

Key Insight: About 10–14 hours after melatonin onset (the time you naturally start to feel sleepy), you’re likely to reach peak alertness and focus.

How to Track Your Melatonin Onset:

Each evening, notice when you naturally feel drowsy, even if you don’t go to bed right away. Write this time down. This drowsy feeling is a good clue that your body is releasing melatonin.

How Melatonin Helps:

It will boost the strength of your sleep-wake cycle (called amplitude). This means:

  • Stronger signals to sleep good at night

  • Clearer alertness during the day

Now you can work with your body’s natural rhythm rather than against it.

Green Line: Your body’s natural alertness cycle, showing when you're more active. Blue Line: The melatonin cycle, showing when melatonin rises (for sleep) and falls over 24 hours.

Step 2: Calculate Your Peak Performance Window

Circadian rhythms align peak mental and physical performance with specific times of day. Studies indicate that 10–14 hours after your melatonin peak, your brain and body are naturally primed for high-focus activities.

Example Calculation:

  • If you feel sleepy around 10 PM, your melatonin peak is roughly 10 PM.

  • Your Peak Productivity Time: 8 AM – 12 PM the next day. Use this period for your highest-priority, complex tasks.

My peak productivity time is at 11:00am.

Step 3 (IMPORTANT) Adjust Based on Your Chronotype

Chronotypes help you understand if you’re a natural morning lark, night owl, or somewhere in between. Optimizing productivity around your chronotype dials in your “Flow time” EVEN MORE.

How To Determine Your Chronotype (Do this for 2-3 weeks)

  1. Workday Tracking: Note when you naturally feel sleepy, even if you can’t go to bed right away.

  2. Weekend Tracking: Let yourself wake up naturally. This data reveals your body's preferred rhythm.

  3. Calculate the Average: Combine your weekday and weekend sleepy and wake times to determine a general pattern.

Chronotypes (like “Lion” or “Wolf”) are a useful way to help people understand their natural energy peaks and sleep-wake preferences. However, individual chronotypes vary more fluidly, and people might not fit perfectly into one category.

Weekly Peak Performance Tracker

Use a tracker to record sleepy times, wake times, and focus periods throughout the week for a personalized, data-driven approach to productivity.

You can screenshot this!

Executive of the week

Weight: 99.2 kg to 85 kg - Waist: 105 cm to 88 cm in 12 weeks.

40+ inches Waist Circumference = High risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

12 weeks later, Alex has:

  1. < Disease Risk: Diabetes risk by up to 30% and heart disease risk by 15-21%.

  2. > Insulin Sensitivity: Better blood sugar control.

  3. < Blood Pressure: Reduces strain on the heart.

  4. > Longevity: Enhances quality and length of life.

That’s it for today amigo!

P.S. I won’t lie—having a Sleep Coach on my team to guide my students through this process makes a huge difference.

When you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you…

1/. Join Thrive in Five
Learn how to fix your posture in just 5 minutes a day.
Get started here (FREE)

2/. Take my Body Type Quiz
Discover how to eat based on your unique body type.
Take the quiz (FREE)

3/. The Lean Executive Course
A comprehensive program to transform your body composition in 12 weeks.
Explore the course (FREE)

4/. Book an Intro Call with Me
Let’s discuss your goals 1-1 and see how I can help you reach them.
Schedule your call (FREE)

References

  • Circadian Rhythms and Performance
    Monk, T. H., & Buysse, D. J. (2010). "Circadian Rhythms in Human Performance and Their Clinical Relevance in Health and Disease." Chronobiology International, 27(7), 1381-1391.
    This study highlights how circadian rhythms influence peak mental and physical performance times throughout the day.

  • Melatonin and Sleep-Wake Cycles
    Sack, R. L., Auckley, D., Auger, R. R., Carskadon, M. A., Wright, K. P., & Vitiello, M. V. (2007). "Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders: Part I, Basic Principles, Shift Work, and Jet Lag Disorders." Sleep, 30(11), 1460-1483.
    This research discusses melatonin's role in regulating sleep onset and how tracking melatonin can reveal optimal productivity windows.

  • Chronotypes and Productivity
    Roenneberg, T., Wirz-Justice, A., & Merrow, M. (2003). "Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human Chronotypes." Journal of Biological Rhythms, 18(1), 80-90.
    This study explores how different chronotypes affect productivity, demonstrating that people are naturally inclined toward certain activity times based on their biological clocks.

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