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Believe it or not, your most productive hours of creativity and focus usually amount to just 3-5 each day.

For the last four weeks, I’ve been sharing ideas to help you get back your creative mojo. Whether at work, in your business, or back at home, we could all use a little more creativity. It’s not just important for full-time creatives, it’s important for everyone.

Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

• Week 1 - Margin (sorry, the link isn’t working)
• Week 2 - Disruption​
• Week 3 - Pace and Place​
• Week 4 - Combinatorial Creativity​

This is the final installment of the five-part series.

#5 - Find Your Zone

Long ago, I discovered my peak creative zone was from 7:30 - 11:30 AM and sought to maximize it. As a result, except for certain days, I don’t schedule meetings during that time.

I use this time for difficult work and meaningful projects requiring focused creative thinking—for me that’s things like creating content (written or verbal), exploring a new business idea, or working on important projects.

Author Carey Nieuwhof offers some insight in his book At Your Best by putting this in terms of zones:

• Green zone - high energy, clear mind, sharp focus, easy to think and imagine, create and contribute (mine is 7:30 - 11:30 AM)
• Yellow zone - neither at your best or your worst. Save this for meetings and important tasks that don’t require a lot of creative thinking (everything in between)
• Red zone - the 1-2 hours when you’re really dragging, your mind is mush, and you aren’t much good for anything. It’s a good time to exercise or take a walk but not much else. (mine is 4-6 PM and after 9 PM)

Identifying your peak creative time starts by understanding your chronotype (your preferred sleep-wake cycle). According to author Daniel H. Pink there are three major chronotypes:

1. The lark. People who love to get up early, and have all their emotional highs and lows a few hours earlier than most people. (That’s me)
2. The owl. People who hate getting up early and start to get creative around 9 PM
3. The third bird. This represents the majority of people, who are neither late, nor early, and just follow the standard pattern.

Once you identify your chronotype and figure out your Green Zone, the next step is discovering what to do with that time. Nieuwhof suggests it should be a combination of three things: your gifting/skills (your sweet spot, what you uniquely do best), your passion (what you love doing), and your impact (the things that make the biggest difference to your mission). Picture it like a Venn Diagram, and where those three circles overlap is where you find gold.

Make an Impact

Are you a lark, owl, or the third bird? What is your Green Zone, Yellow Zone, and Red Zone? Where do your skills, passion, and impact align? Try rearranging your schedule at least one day this week around your peak creative time. Then decide what you are going to do during that time. It should be something you enjoy, are skilled at, and creates an impact.

Find your zone,

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