When was the last time you shut down your computer at 6 pm and ended your day right then? Most professionals today don’t shut down at all, working at times that work for them best.
Especially since the pandemic, with everyone working remote/hybrid, the traditional 9-5 has given way to what’s being called a triple peak day.
How the Triple Peak Work Day is Impacting Productivity
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is a Triple Peak Day?
A triple peak day is when a professional has three distinct productivity spurts within a workday—one in the morning, another after lunch, and the third late in the evening.
Whether it’s replying to emails one more time in the evening or writing up a report after putting the children to bed, the third peak is becoming an integral part of modern work.
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding The Triple Peak Work Day
During the pandemic, Microsoft researchers saw an increase in the use of Teams in the evenings. That trend continued long after, with about 30% of Microsoft employees having an evening spike in work, not just internal messaging, as measured in keyboard events below.
Before we get into how you can use triple peak days to your advantage, let’s see why the trend emerged in the first place.
Digital tools: Collaboration and communication tools make it easier to respond to messages at any time. Mobile technologies make it easier. So, when someone has a free moment in the evenings, they can work.
Global teams: Today, cross-functional teams work across time zones. A business team in the US regularly works with engineering teams in India. Overlap of time happens in the evenings, creating new productivity peaks.
Diverse needs: Team members today treat work and life as equally important. Both parents choose to pick up children from school, watch a football match, or just watch a movie as a couple. The third productivity peak enables them to take a break during the productivity troughs without losing time.
As the world evolves to a new working model, let’s see what the three peaks of productivity are.
Summarize this article for me pleaseDeciphering Triple Peak Days
The traditional 9-5 workday typically had two productivity peaks: One in the morning and another in the afternoon. Depending on the business’ needs and employee’s preferences, they planned their day to get work done.
Now that there is a third peak, let’s see how the three peaks often combine to form a workday.
Focus peak
This is the first productivity peak that occurs early in the day, when you engage in deep, focused work, taking advantage of high energy levels and fewer productivity killers. Especially if you’re a morning person, you might love the silence and peace that’s available early.
Writers write or edit in the mornings. Artists make art. Developers solve problems or do their coding. Project managers use this time to gather data and identify opportunities for improvement.
Collaboration peak
This is the second productivity peak, typically occurring in the midday. Just after lunch, you might have broken the focus you had in the morning, yet you’re energized to get work done. So, you’ll do the collaborative tasks you need to.
Some of the tasks that are great for your productivity peak are:
- Replying to emails
- Internal and client calls
- Responding to team members’ comments on tasks
- Reviews and evaluations
Recovery peak
The final peak occurs in the late evening. During this period, you might wrap up your work, plan for the next day, or engage in creative tasks that benefit from quiet reflection.
For example, a project manager might review the day’s progress and set priorities for the following day. A team leader might clear up emails and messages that came in during the afternoon.
This peak serves to wrap up the day and set yourself up for success for the next day.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow Triple Peak Days Influence Work-Life Balance
Fundamentally, the concept of triple peak day changes the way work has been done for decades. It challenges the 9-5, which naturally evokes concerns around overwork. Especially after the pandemic, people tended to overwork themselves for a variety of reasons. This has profound influence on work-life balance.
Time management: The eight hour typical workday now has three peaks, needing individuals to adjust their schedules accordingly. It is important for work-life balance that the third peak doesn’t add an extra two work hours to the day. This also means that project managers need to adapt to the preferences of every team member while scheduling work.
Availability: The third peak suggests that knowledge workers are available for a couple of hours at the end of the day. Sometimes, what begins as quickly checking emails or having a short Microsoft Teams call can extend to long hours. This can eat into someone’s personal hours, or worse, sleep.
Mental space: When the day extends into the night, there is a risk of work staying top of mind the entire time. This can occupy mental space unduly, preventing employees from focusing on their family, friends, and personal lives with all their minds. This can adversely affect work-life balance.
Procrastination: The chances of employees pushing the more challenging tasks to the last peak of day are high. This can be especially true if the days are filled with meetings, pushing team members to do the work that matters late into the night.
Burn out: Those who have regular triple peak days might be overworking themselves. This can lead to stress and burnout, leaving them unproductive over the long term. Sustaining peak productivity three times a day can be stressful and near impossible.
Despite its potential pitfalls, the triple peak day is extremely common and needs to be dealt with. Managers would do well to adapt themselves to the new model and lead appropriately.
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe Role of Managers in Embracing Triple Peak Days
Managers play a fundamental role in ensuring that teams are both productive and have great work-life balance. While the new trend of triple peak days can be productive, it can have adverse effects if not managed right.
To properly manage teams that have triple peak days, managers need the following.
Empathy: Remember that not everyone has triple peak days. Some still work the 9-5 and plan their life around that, even if they have flexible schedules. So, don’t expect everyone to be available during the night. Try techniques like time management games to understand your team’s workday structures and respect their preferences.
Planning: The third peak doesn’t have to come as an additional burden to team members already having productive eight-hour days.
Encourage employees to take regular breaks to recharge. Let them know it’s okay to start late or take a break in the afternoon and return to work later. Support initiatives that promote physical and mental well-being, such as exercise programs, mindfulness sessions, or access to mental health resources.
Environment design: Create a work environment that minimizes expectations from the third peak.
- Eliminate distractions and interruptions in the first peak or focus hour
- Implement silent hours or set up dedicated quiet spaces in the office to prevent team members from needing the dinn of the night to focus
- Timebox meetings and focus on the agenda
- Use documentation and asynchronous working models to prevent unnecessary meetings
For those working remotely, leverage some of the best home office tips.
Resource allocation: Ensure all team members can access the tools, information, and resources to be productive. This may involve providing access to specific software or reallocating tasks to balance workloads.
Adaptability: Track progress throughout triple peak days and be open to feedback from team members. Listen to what works and what doesn’t and adjust accordingly.
Irrespective of your manager’s preparation, you can observe your productivity trends and leverage triple peak days to your benefit. Let’s see how.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Manage Triple Peak Days
To begin with, make sure you’re indeed having triple peak days. Simply spending extra time at night to make-do for time lost isn’t triple peak. To have triple peaks of productivity, you need to have three distincts chunks of time in which you’re getting good work done.
Here are some tips to get that right with a project management tool like ClickUp.
Plan ahead
If your days are triple peak, plan accordingly. Break your days into three productivity spurts, one each for focused work, collaborative work, and other recovery work.
ClickUp’s calendar view helps you organize your schedule, making it easier to handle the triple peaks. You can also block certain chunks of time for specific tasks. ClickUp’s daily time blocking template serves this purpose by visualizing the important tasks during peak productivity hours.
With its five different views and three different statuses, this beginner-level template is a great way to maximize your daily time block, eventually resulting in higher productivity.
Prioritize
Prioritize tasks by urgency and importance. This helps you decide what to do during peak productivity times and what you can delegate or schedule for later.
Set the priority level for each task using ClickUp’s task priorities view. This will help you and your team know what to do and in which order, avoiding delays in the delivery of urgent tasks.
Take regular breaks
Schedule short breaks between peak periods to prevent burnout and maintain high energy to focus throughout the day. A break could be some gym time, a walk, a hobby, or a power nap. Do what’s right for you.
And make sure your break time is your break time. Don’t let anyone schedule meetings on top of it, which can then derail your productivity entirely. Use any of ClickUp’s time management templates to give your days a structure.
Utilize ClickUp’s workload view and activity view to understand how much work you have. Plan your breaks around it. Use it to see how others on your team are occupied in case you need to set up meetings or collaborative work time.
Communicate clearly
Maintain open lines of communication with your team about how you structure your flexible hours. For instance, if you have your most creative time late in the evening, let your teammates know you’re not available for meetings.
If your afternoons are for comments and emails, use ClickUp’s chat view to consolidate all your messages in one place, so you can respond accordingly. Tag your team members and add your comments under a specific task to notify them. If they’re online, have quick chat conversations to iron out blockers.
Adapt
Regularly review the effectiveness of your triple peak days using work schedule apps. Measure your energy levels. Be open to feedback from colleagues about how it affects collaboration. Adapt your productive times based on your own changing needs and your team’s.
ClickUp Dashboards can help you see your personal activities across tasks and projects to improve productivity levels.
Now, the triple peak day is an important change in how we work. Like anything new, it offers both opportunities and challenges. Here’s how to leverage the former and overcome the latter.
Summarize this article for me pleaseOpportunities and Challenges of Triple Peak Day
Every argument has two sides, as does the triple peak day. Some of the biggest opportunities and related challenges are:
- It creates new avenues for productivity. However, if not managed well, it can lead to burnout
- Some team members might be pushed to use the third peak to cover for the unequal distribution of work
- The extra time enabled by the triple peak can lead to workload paralysis
- Worst of all, the triple peak might eat into more of an employee’s personal time, defeating the very purpose
Summarize this article for me pleaseTake Your Productivity to the Maximum With ClickUp
Though the triple peak day may sound productive, it comes with a cost. By thinking of it as additional productivity alone, you might end up overworking, burning out along the way.
Especially for remote workers, workdays could just merge into nights, becoming an endless cycle of activity. To avoid this, you need the right tools and processes.
ClickUp’s project management software, workload visibility, and flexible templates offer you everything you need to leverage your triple peak days.
Summarize this article for me pleaseCommon FAQs
1. What is a triple peak workday?
A triple peak workday is a productivity trend that structures the workday around three distinct periods of high energy or peak productivity. They are:
- Focus peak or morning peak
- Collaboration peak or afternoon peak
- Recovery peak or late evening peak
2. What is the third peak in the triple peak day?
The third peak in the triple peak day is called the recovery peak or late evening peak.
It is characterized by a resurgence of energy and focus, making it an opportune time to wrap up the day’s tasks, focus on lighter administrative work, plan for the following day, or engage in creative tasks that benefit from a more relaxed state of mind.
3. What are peak productive hours?
Peak productive hours refer to specific times during the day when energy, concentration, and overall productivity are at their highest. These periods can vary significantly among people. The most common peak productivity times are:
- Morning peak
- Afternoon peak
- Late evening peak
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