The Effectively Body Clock

This week felt a bit off. I woke up, and it was still dark. I went to bed later than usual. My family even shifted our dinner and bedtime schedules. What changed? Just one hour - Daylight Savings Time (for those lucky enough to avoid it). It got me thinking about how much our natural body clocks influence our effectiveness, which brings us to today’s topic.

Tip of the Week: Your body has an internal clock that dictates when you're most productive, creative, or in need of rest. Learning to work with it (instead of against it) can make a huge difference in focus, energy, and overall effectiveness.

THE THEORY

Your chronotype determines your natural energy rhythm. Despite the mass media narrative, not everyone is wired to wake up at 5 AM and crush a workout. Our internal clocks (called chronotypes) determine whether we’re morning larks, night owls, or somewhere in between. Research shows that forcing ourselves into schedules that don’t match our natural rhythms can lead to lower performance, and even long-term health risks. Instead of fighting it, we should optimize our work and rest around it.

Light exposure is the ultimate reset button for your body clock. Our circadian rhythm (the 24-hour cycle that controls sleep, metabolism, and energy levels) is regulated by light. Getting bright, natural light in the morning helps wake us up by suppressing melatonin and boosting cortisol (the good kind that helps with alertness). Research from Andrew Huberman suggests that spending 5–10 minutes in outdoor light shortly after waking up can improve focus, mood, and even sleep quality later at night. On the flip side, too much blue light at night (from screens, for example) can trick our bodies into staying awake longer than they should. [Side note: I stopped wearing sunglasses when dropping my kids at school in the morning.]

Productivity peaks at different times for different tasks. Daniel Pink’s book "When" explores how our focus and energy fluctuate throughout the day. Many of us experience three main phases: a peak (high focus, best for analytical work), a valley (low energy, best for mindless tasks), and a rebound (creative insights tend to happen here). Morning people tend to peak early, while night owls do better in the evening. Understanding these rhythms helps us schedule the right work at the right time, rather than pushing through mental fatigue when our brains just aren’t cooperating.

MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS

I’ve experimented with different activities at different times, and it’s made a huge difference. For example, I’ve noticed I write best in the morning before my brain gets cluttered with emails or late at night (although this does impact my ability to fall asleep). Analytical work (like reviewing data) feels easier around mid-morning. Exercising right before lunch is my sweet spot (early in the morning I am too tired, later in the afternoon I am a mix of hungry and in need of doing something productive). Bottomline is: I have tested many things I do recurrently (workouts, types of work, eating schedules), and after many iterations have realized what my optimal is. I strongly believe everyone should experiment with this too.

Most of us follow schedules we never actually chose. We eat at noon because that’s when our lunch break is. We drink coffee the second we wake up because that’s how it’s done in TV commercials. We say yes to all the meetings and then try to be productive at times that are left. But what if we actually designed our days around when we perform best? Learning what makes us tick can make all the difference.

HOW TO PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE

1. Find your chronotype. Take a test like the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) or simply track when you feel most awake, focused, and tired over a week.

2. Get morning sunlight. Spend at least 5 minutes outside soon after waking (no sunglasses) to help regulate your internal clock.

3. Plan your work around your peak times. Do deep-focus tasks when you naturally have the most energy and save repetitive or low-effort tasks for your troughs.

4. Learn what works for you. Test out different meal, workout, bedtime and deep work schedules, keep a log, see what feels best.

Incredible what a one hour shift can cause.

Timely,

Jorge Luis Pando

“If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me. Time after time.”