According to a survey that was conducted last year, the hour 2:22 pm was deemed the least productive time of day. Even though the survey is oddly specific and not that scientifically accurate, it does tap into a general feeling that we all have. You know, that time of day when you’ve just had lunch and feel like laying around doing a whole lot of nothing.
The Huffington Post consulted several expects and concluded that this general decrease in productivity isn’t limited to an exact hour of the day, it consists of a two or three hour period of time where doing things and getting work done is harder than usual. This is known as the “post-lunch dip”, a term that, according to Fred W. Turek, director of the Center or Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern University, retains its name even if you didn’t have lunch.
“Studies have shown a decrease in cognition, increase in fatigue over 24 hours ― with the big period occurring in the hours from about midnight to 6 a.m. ― but a secondary peak in the period coinciding from about 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.”
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Turek also explained that this decrease in your abilities and motivation is very common amongst most people and really hard to beat. Sadly, no one has found a way of preventing this, so our best guess is to power through or to take a short nap and get back to work. Napping sounds really great.
