The 3pm lull
Haul yourself out of that dread-swamp
A cheerier newsletter this month. Indeed, this one's all about energy and what to do when it’s not there.
Also, I was on the popular and fun How to be Awesome at your Job podcast by Pete Mockaitis this week. We got into timeboxing and agency (more on this below) and, relatedly, The Fountainhead. It’s here.
I feel a heaviness. My fingers lie flat on the keyboard, unmoving. A mild ache in my arms. My eyelids droop. I read a sentence again and again. I’ve been like this for a while now, I think. I get this most days, around this time.
Many of us experience a lull in energy and performance around 3pm*. I do.
George Mack posted about this idea on X recently: https://x.com/george__mack/status/1933642534720352699
This ‘doom loop’, this ‘biological breeding ground for depressive thoughts and low agency’ is neither fun nor productive. It’s the opposite of a flow state, when we’re enjoying, achieving, oblivious to the passing of time, as action and consciousness coalesce, in bliss.
Steve Jobs is credited with, amongst a few other things, the idea of managing your energy rather than your time. Whether he said it or not, this is fuzzy thinking. We should manage our time: choose what to do and when to do it. Our energy levels, mood, and temporary proclivities are just an input to that. But sometimes energy doesn’t have a part to play. I think it just sounds cooler (to some people), more spiritual even, to talk about managing energy rather than managing time. But we must not allow pseudo-spirituality to cloud our thinking!
How, then, might we break ourselves out of the lull?
Here are nine activities to try:
Close your eyes for a few moments
Stretch your limbs
Splash cold water on your face
Take a short walk
Gaze outside, ideally at nature
Read a chapter of a book
Tidy your desk area
Doodle and let the mind wander
Show gratitude to someone
But the one that’s most effective for me isn’t on this list. I think it’s especially useful now that we’re in July and in peak-summer in the Northern Hemisphere (where most of you live). The most effective lull-buster is to take a cold shower. Sure, it’s not always possible. But since so many of us work from home these days it often is possible. It’s fast, efficient, effective and economical with our most precious resources (time, energy, water).
The point is to do something about the lull. Don’t just wait for it to subside when it’s ready, at its own behest. Be on the front foot. Shoo it away. Embrace the power of your agency.
*Of course, my 3pm lull might be your 5pm or 10am. This advice is chronologically portable.
Marc
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
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