This week, I’ve had two lengthy meetings at the end of the working day. Important, interesting meetings, but exhausting, and it brought to mind the often overlooked skill of scheduling things for the best possible time.

The instinct for those convening with others is to arrange a meeting when they have time. The first thing the participants know about it is a calendar invite with green or red buttons (and occasionally a yellow), with very little thought about the other things going on around them and the capacity to be at their best at the scheduled time.

I am a morning person; I rise early because of home commitments and often start work at 6am or earlier. Due to this, important tasks are always the first things that get my attention. Not because I eat the frog, but because this is the point in the day when I am at my best — I am high energy. By the time 5pm rolls around, I’m frequently exhausted and very low energy. So a long meeting at this time will be a real struggle.

Whereas if I have to arrange meetings, I typically put them in first thing, with little regard to people who might need a bit of time to ‘warm up’ into the day. By spending a bit of time and thought on the working practices of the people around us, specifically on our teams, we could all have a better experience and get more done.

Being aware of the difference between high and low-energy periods of the day has been a good productivity boost. For quite a while, I’ve highlighted tasks with high and low markers to make sure I am getting things done at the right point in the day. If I have some creative work to do or a problem to solve — that’s high energy and gets done first. If I have some research to complete or reading waiting for input — that’s low energy and can be done later in the day.