You might make even more progress on your college applications if you choose to work on the right portions at the right time of day.
In the best-selling When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, author Dan Pink explains that our biological clocks dictate our likelihood of performing at our best on a task. That’s because most people experience three stages each day, which Pink calls a peak, a trough, and a recovery. The peak, when we’re best able to concentrate, focus, and ignore distractions, occurs for most people in the morning (not first thing, necessarily, just when you’re ready to get started on your work day). The trough is when that sharp focus and deep thinking starts to wane, which for most of us happens in the early to mid-afternoon. The recovery, when we get some mental juices flowing again, typically occurs in the late afternoon or early evening (one in five people—the night owls—move in the reverse order).
According to Pink, here’s how to make the most of those times:
Do your analytical tasks, those that require you to concentrate and think more logically than creatively, in the morning during the peak. It’s a great time to revise your college essay, but not a great time to brainstorm a new one.
The trough is best reserved for administrative tasks, those that don’t require your mind to be at its sharpest. That’s a great time to fill out the informational portions of the applications—you don’t need to be on your mental A-game to remember your name, your contact information, the name of your school, etc.
And the recovery period is perfect when you need your most creative side to come through. You’ve left behind the lull of the trough, but you’re also more relaxed, more open, and less head-down and focused than you are in your morning peak. This is the time to dive into draft one of that new college essay with the story that just hasn’t presented itself to you yet.
Focus in the morning, plow through during the afternoon, and get creative in the early evening.