Why You Are Less Productive After Noon
Have you ever felt tired and unfocused during the afternoon hours? Well, let me tell you that you’re not the only one that experiences this kind of fatigue.
There is a lot of research done about this very subject, and the results were astonishing.
Take, for example, this research authored by Hans Henrik Sievertsen. This study has shown that, on average, students perform better on tests at the start of a school day than later in the day.
Why?
Because most people (students included) suffer from what’s called a “Cognitive Fatiguness.”
It means that our focus during noon hours decreases quite a bit. Our brains get tired every hour, and thus we are more likely to lose our focus, the motivation to perform work, and any other productive activity.
And even if we produce any work, it turns out to be of lower quality.
Do you recognise yourself in this? Well, as I said, you’re not the only one.
The Afternoon Slump
The majority of the people worldwide experience this exact phenomenon, which is called: “The afternoon Slump.”
This afternoon slump is simple to describe. Our body has a biological clock, and the late it is, the more likely our focus gets less. And when we are about to go to bed, our body produces melatonin. This chemical makes us feel more sleepy.
Around 05:00 am, our body starts to make another chemical with the name Coristol. This chemical is responsible for waking us up.
The moment we get out of bed and start doing some activities, like brushing our teeth, making breakfast, and so on, the moment our focus and alertness start to increase.
This alertness grows steadily over the day until we reach our peak.
This peak is mainly in the early morning, around 11:00 am.
This alertness level starts to decrease after a couple of hours until we hit the afternoon slump, which is mostly between 2 pm and 5 pm.
And this is the exact reason students get lower grades when they tend to take a test in the afternoon hours. And that’s also the same reason why we can’t produce anything qualitatively in the afternoon.
Let me show you how our focus tends to behave during the day with this graph.
After we wake up, our focus and alertness slowly rise until it peaks around noon. But what’s remarkable is that it looks like we have a short slump, after which we get a little bump.
Then it slowly decreases during the afternoon hours. And eventually, we see a significant drop, but this drop occurs in the middle of the night. We usually never notice this drop since we are mostly sleeping during these hours.
Reducing Sleep Hours Might Not Be A Good Idea
We might think that reducing our sleep hours gives us more hours to be productive during the day. But that’s far from true.
If you ever thought about cutting your sleep hours to use them during your daily activity, then let me tell you the following:
You will have a more challenging time focusing on a complex project. It will increase the amount of time you spend on your daily tasks, and thus you’ll need more time to get your work done.
It’s the opposite if you are someone who spent the recommended 7–8 hours of quality sleep. You might have fewer hours during the day, but your energy level is fully charged, and thus, your mental and physical performance will be very high.
Keep in mind that these 7–8 hours of sleep need to be consistent. In other words, if you usually go to bed around 11 pm, keep this habit on.
Consuming Carbohydrates
Another habit that may amplify your afternoon slump is consuming a large number of carbohydrates.
And with carbohydrates, I don’t only mean candy and chocolate. I’m also talking about food like spaghetti, white bread, sweetened yogurt, etc.
And yes, you might feel energized after consuming these types of fast carbs, but this is due to the large amount of sugar that you consume.
A recent study has shown that consuming a large amount of this kind of food is responsible for somethings that is known as brain fug. This is one of the reason why we might get less productive.
This is mainly because our body is working on digesting this amount of food. And this can take up a lot of energy.
So instead, consume a small amount of food with all the macros that our body needs. A quick tip: serve your food on smaller plates. This way, you likely won’t consume a lot more than what you can serve on that small plate.
Take Breaks More Often
Another advice to avoid having a big afternoon slump is taking breaks regularly.
Most people tend to avoid these breaks to perform more tasks during the day.
Once again, that might be the case, but the work you deliver might not be of good quality.
Or worse, you will not be able to finish your tasks as scheduled.
So what you need to do is detach yourself from that important project that you’re working on and treat yourself with a 5–10 minutes break. Do this every 60 minutes to maintain your focus level.
So what to do during these breaks?
What you can do during these breaks is, walking outside, having a chat with a colleague or friend, or maybe close your eyes for 10 minutes and do nothing at all.
Afternoon Naps Are Gold
My last advice to break through this afternoon slump is to take an afternoon nap.
But keep these naps short and sweet. If you can take the afternoon nap, go for 15–20 minutes.
But don’t sleep for more than a half-hour. You most likely will wake up disoriented and not willing to perform any productive work whatsoever.
This is also known as sleep inertia.
If you can’t take an afternoon nap, I would recommend you to close your eyes and think about nothing for 5–10 minutes. This tactic is considered to clear your mind and give you the same energy boost as taking an actual nap. As a result, your cognitive ability will spike up, and you will be more productive than ever.
So I hope I’ve cleared your view about the afternoon slump with this video. If you liked it, consider hitting that follow and like button. Let me also know if you have any other advice to be more productive during the day to benefit from it.
