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Brigid Schulte

Goodreads Author

Born

in Eugene, OR, The United States

Website

http://www.brigidschulte.com

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BrigidSchulte

Genre

Nonfiction, Business, Self Help

Member Since

September 2008

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Brigid Schulte is an award-winning journalist for the Washington Post and Washington Post magazine. She was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize. She is also a fellow at the New America Foundation. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and two children. She grew up in Oregon and spent summers in Wyoming, where she did not feel overwhelmed.

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Hi Brigid. Just finished Overwhelmed and loved it. As an author, it was freeing to read about the ninety minute stretches. Since I still have a full time job, I let go of the guilt of not having hour upon hour to spend on my WIP. My question is: Is there a way to discover a person's optimum productivity time? Or is it always in the morning?

Brigid Schulte Hi Jody!

Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm so glad you liked Overwhelmed. (and good for you for letting go of the guilt - perhaps you can't carve …moreHi Jody!

Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm so glad you liked Overwhelmed. (and good for you for letting go of the guilt - perhaps you can't carve out time every day for your work, but if you looked over the course of a week, or a month and saw how much time you were able to find, you might find more ease.)

And thanks for your question. It's a good one.

When it comes to productivity, we're all wired a little differently. Some of us are night owls, some like to get up at the crack of dawn. Those are two very distinct "chronotypes" - most of us can fall somewhere in the middle, or even switch through our lifetimes.

That said, Steve Kay, a professor of molecular & computational biology at the USC who studies our natural body clock, told Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal that being in tune with our natural cycles can give us "an edge in daily life."

-For cognitive work, most adults perform best in the late morning. Working memory, alertness and concentration gradually improve, Shellenbarger wrote, as body temperature starts to rise just before we wake up and climbs through mid-day.

-Take breaks! The Federal Aviation Administration has found that short breaks between longer working sessions resulted in a 16 percent boost in awareness and focus. Anders Ericcson, who studied excellence, found that the best musicians were more productive during their practice sessions, and took more breaks and got more sleep than other musicians.

My colleague at the Washington Post, Jena McGregor, wrote a fascinating piece on DeskTime, a software program that tracks work productivity. They found that the most productive workers do focused work for about 57 minutes, then take a break and completely step away from their computers for 17.

Here's a link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/o...

Jenna has another interesting piece on the best (and worst) times to do things at work:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/o...

-Research shows we start to slide just after lunch. We're most easily distracted from noon to 4.

-Sleepiness tends to peak around 2 pm, according to Robert Matchock, an associate professor of psychology at Penn State.

-But here's the interesting thing - fatigue seems to boost creative powers (perhaps because that pesky and loud internal critic in our heads is too tired to pay much attention?) Another study found that adults tackle open-ended problems best when they're tired in the evening.

(In truth - when I was writing, I found I had to be well rested and fresh. But when I was editing? The more tired I was, the better - or at least the more ruthlessly - I was able to edit! I had no patience!)

-Exercise is best done between 3 and 6 pm with the least risk of injury, when muscle strength and eye-hand coordination are at their peak, according to Michael Smolensky, a biomedical engineering professor at Univ. of Texas at Austin. (sorry, I have to do it first thing, or I'll spend the entire day in my workout gear, with my butt in my chair working and never break a sweat.)

-Eating is best done during the active hours of the day. In an experiment, the mice who ate only while active were 40 percent leaner than a control group on the same diet that ate anytime they felt like it. (Hmm, no more late night procrasti eating on deadline...)

-Research has found that when we send emails early in the day - at say 6 am, they're more likely to be read. That's according to Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist for HubPot, a web marketing firm.

-Reading twitter at 8 or 9 am can start the day on a bright and fun note. But if you want your post to be retweeted - you'll have more luck between 3 and 6 when people are tired and may not have the energy to post something noteworthy of their own. And the drama and emotion can light up between 10 and 11 pm.

Likewise, Facebook tends to get the most "likes" after about 8 pm.

Here's a link to Sue's fascinating story in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S...

Now, go and listen to your body and enjoy the day!

Thanks for the question

Best,
Brigid

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Brigid Schulte’s books

Average rating: 3.82 · 8,718 ratings · 989 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time 3.83 avg rating — 8,301 ratings — published 2014 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life 3.82 avg rating — 402 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family, and Life by Miriam Liss, Holly H. Schiffrin, Brigid Schulte (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 4.10 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Doing It All as a Solo Parent (HBR Working Parents Series) by Harvard Business Review, Daisy Dowling, Brigid Schulte (Goodreads Author) 3.64 avg rating — 14 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sobrecarregados: Trabalho, Amor e Lazer Quando Ninguem Tem Tempo 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Over Work: Transforming the daily grind in the quest for a better life 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blink Publishing Over Work Transforming the daily grind in the quest for a better life. 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Brigid Schulte's Blog

Thirty Hours of Leisure a Week?

I began this book quite by accident. As I describe in chapter 1, I was appointed to an internal working group at the Washington Post when an analysis of our readers found a big gap between male and female readers, particularly between the ages of 18 – 44 – what our demographic researchers call “the frenetic family” demographic. Our committee – comprised of all women journalists – took one look aro Read more of this blog post »

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Published on February 07, 2014 23:45

Brigid is Currently Reading

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Goodhouse

by Peyton Marshall (Goodreads Author)

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Jan 25, 2015 03:26PM

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Matterness

by Allison H. Fine

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Feb 12, 2025 12:01PM

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Radiance of Tomorrow

by Ishmael Beah

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Feb 06, 2014 09:12PM

Quotes by Brigid Schulte (?)

“What if not just women, but both men and women, worked smart, more flexible schedules? What if the workplace itself was more fluid than the rigid and narrow ladder to success of the ideal worker? And what if both men and women became responsible for raising children and managing the home, sharing work, love, and play? Could everyone then live whole lives?”
― Brigid Schulte, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

tags: motivational

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“Busyness is now the social norm that people feel they must conform to, Burnett says, or risk being outcasts.”
― Brigid Schulte, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

5 likes

“What often matters more than the activity we're doing at a moment in time is how we feel about it.”
― Brigid Schulte, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

tags: mindfulness, time

5 likes

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Brigid’s Quotes

“I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

3491 likes

“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
― Moliere

tags: inspirational, patience

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tags: motivational

8 likes

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”
― Tom Bodett

tags: happiness, hope, joy, love, wishing

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“I’ve named everything that I’ve ever owned. Real or inanimate, I have to give it a first and last name. Everything in my apartment comes alive at night.”
― Amy Sedaris

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