How do you structure your work day? (desk job)

[waitingforautumn]

Just curious about others really. I tend to work in bursts and I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing... so super productive 9-11am, informal break/check phone potter around if wfh. Often crave a snack! Organise my inbox/to do list until lunch. I tend to save 'easier' tasks for the afternoon (morning frog eater here), so that always feels a bit unstructured and I definitely notice my concentration dwindling into the PM, although I tend to find myself hyper focusing on something or other at some point before crashing for the day.

Wondering how others spread their productivity out. Keen for some insight and maybe some hacks for levelling my energy levels out a bit more...! I constantly wish I could be one of those people who stick to a proper to do list and tick it all off in a calm and orderly fashion 🤔. Doesn't help that my job can be quite reactive even though I've got ongoing projects to work on which consistently throws any well laid plans off and leaves me feeling like I've badly organised myself.

Obviously writing this as my brain wanders during my mid-morning lull...

Yes i think that's fairly typical, I don't know many people who can achieve 8 hours of solid productivity. I'm the opposite to you in that I am pretty sleepy/rubbish in the mornings and better in the afternoon so always try and start my day with going through my inbox and prioritising what I've got on that day while I drink my coffee (only easy tasks for me until the caffiene kicks in ), then I generally try to do meetings and chats to team members/colleagues in the AM then alternate longer/more complex tasks with easier ones like quick replies to emails in the PM, filing things, reading through things sent to me FYI - things just to give my brain a bit of a break. Quick 5 min breaks to stretch, look at my phone, do a small household task work well for me but I cannot let myself turn on the TV or go onto MN at all she says MNetting as we speak as hours will then disappear . Doesn't always work out perfectly of course, some days I'm better than others and the nature of my work is such that I try and look at my productivity over the course of a week or month rather than stressing what I've achieved on any particular day, as whole days can be consumed in urgent tasks, meetings or simple not-feeling-it days...

Arrive, make a cuppa. Quick chat with colleagues esp on Monday. Morning tends to be check emails, cafch up with short term to dos or tail ends of jobs such as filing, our team meetings (weekly) are usually in the morning. Coffee break with colleagues at 10.15, lunch at 12.30, afternoon tends to be working on longer term projects. It's also easier to catch colleagues to discuss things in the afternoon as mornings tend to be busier. Another coffee break at 3.15. Last half hour or so ia checking to do lists again, catching anything urgent I've forgotten about etc.

Advance planning helps me so rather than do regular tasks piecemeal I'll do them all in one go. For example in my job I do social media comms. I have a regular post that goes out on a Monday to say what events are coming up this week. So I'll schedule them all in advance rather than on a week by week basis and then I can forget about it. I also factor in extra time to get tasks completed in case anything crops up at the last minute. I have to produce a monthly report so I'll start it 2 weeks in advance to give me plenty of time to get it done. I also block out time in my calendar to get things done and that kind of keeps me motivated to get it done.

I’m definitely better in the afternoons, so save my tricky to do things until then.

I end every day by writing 5-6 things down as my priority to do list for the next day, to chip away at them.

Last thing on a Friday, I also review the previous week & set up the following week. I find it sets me up well.

I’m usually at my most productive in the middle of the day and do easier tasks first/last thing. If I have a bunch of low concentration tasks to do (my job involves quite a bit of data entry/spreadsheets) I usually save them up and decamp from the dining table to the sofa at about 3pm and do them with some daytime tv on in the background

Power through the morning at full speed and all being well coast the afternoon.