How to maintain productivity in the middle of the day?

Question

Duplicate:

Daily Motivation Tips

How do you keep focused and reduce interruptions at the workplace?

What keeps you motivated at your job?

Tricks to avoid productivity rabbit holes

What time of day are you most proficient at programming?

I've definitely noticed that I am much more productive in the morning and my productivity declines throughout the day -- but the worst is during the middle of the day. Unfortunately management loves to schedule most meetings at lunchtime or towards the end of the day.

I am sure I'm not the only one whose mood is affected by time of day. Especially around noon.

Does anyone have a silver bullet for maintaining productivity through this mid day slump?

Answer 1

Exercise. It's swimming for me.

Answer 2

Take a small nap (15 mins), if possible.

Answer 3

Coffee and a 15 minute brisk walk.

Answer 4

Keep your blood sugar level up and have a snack every hour or so.

However, please stay away from candy bars and the like. Try dried fruit or nuts. Very healthy stuff in the right dose.

Answer 5

If you have your own office, a post lunch 15 minute nap works for some people.

I've fought with myself having periods of drinking bad stuff (lots of soda) and periods of good stuff (all water). On the all water periods, to combat the 2-3 o'clock slowdown I would bring one red bull in from home for me (8oz can) and it worked pretty well.

Answer 6

Can you shift your hours around? I.e. coming in at 6-7am and leaving at 3-4pm? I found that naturally I was more productive earlier on.

Either that or fragment your day - if you can take a huge lunch that might help too - like go to the gym for an hour then eat then come back.

Answer 7

I've noted that in afternoon I'm lot sleepier if I've eaten a lot. Eating light reduces this effect. Of course coffee and fresh air help a lot.

Answer 8

I have one suggestion: eat some trail mix at 10:00. Works well for me.

Answer 9

Exercise, tea and frequent stretching. Try picking up a book and reading for 10 minutes. And don't expect to be 100% productive 100% of the time.

Read Stack Overflow.

Answer 10

Food. (And preferably something not heavy & fatty).

We all know that eating a big lunch kills the next couple of hours, but equally, if you skip lunch you'll probably find you will run out of steam before the end of the day. I have a colleague who follows the 'lunch is for wimps' mantra and he starts making mistakes in the afternoon.

Also have a break: read a book/newspaper, go for a walk, listen to some music. Developers often don't like to lose a train of thought, but I find a break and then coming back to the same piece of work gives me fresh impetus, and sometimes insight.

Answer 11

Eat small meals at short intervals throughout the day. Don't overdo the starches, a big bowl of spaghetti at lunch will make anyone tired.

Answer 12

I had the same problem and have experimented with various things over the years, caffeine, lack of caffeine, naps, workouts, etc. These work best for me:

• Take a 20 minute nap. This is by far the biggest impact. Make sure it only lasts 15-20 minutes, but if you can actually fall asleep this will work wonders. You will wake up like its a fresh day and if you jump directly back into coding or writing you will be as productive as you are at the start of the day
• Have a smaller lunch. Huge lunches drain your energy.
• Don't prescribe set times for lunch and other daily routines. Though meetings will be out of your control, if you are on a roll and aren't hungry then keep coding. The opposite is true as well: if you are peckish or just feel like an early lunch take it.
• This is probably out of your control, but avoid long, boring meetings. Meetings are the number one productivity killer.

Answer 13

+1 for a short walk

If you have a laptop -- move to another location. A change of scenery can be quite refreshing.