Plan my day around my actual energy
When to use
You're planning your day or week and want to make better use of your cognitive capacity.
What you'll get
A sequenced task schedule that puts demanding work during your peak hours, with flags for what not to schedule adjacent to depleting activities.
The prompt
Here's what I need to accomplish today / this week: [LIST OF TASKS].
My energy pattern: I'm typically sharpest in the [morning / afternoon / evening] and experience a dip around [TIME]. I have roughly [NUMBER] hours of genuinely high-focus time.
Fixed commitments: [MEETINGS / CALLS / OBLIGATIONS AND THEIR TIMES].
Two things the research is clear on:
- Decision quality and self-control both deteriorate across a day of decisions and demands. By late afternoon, even people who feel fine are making worse choices and defaulting more to the safe, conservative, familiar option rather than the best one.
- What you do before and after an intense activity matters as much as the scheduling. A major decision immediately after back-to-back meetings is not the same as the same decision after a break and food.
Sequence my tasks so that judgment-heavy, creative, or consequential work falls during my peak hours, and routine or administrative work fills the depleted periods. Flag specifically what I should not schedule adjacent to [PARTICULAR DEPLETING ACTIVITY], and why.Why this prompt works
The "not adjacent to" flag is as important as the scheduling itself. Decision fatigue compounds through a day, and the sequence of activities matters as much as their placement in the calendar.
The psychology behind this
Ego Depletion
Read the full experiment โ04_ego_depletion.mdThe Hungry Judge
Read the full experiment โ23_hungry_judges.mdImplementation Intentions
Read the full experiment โ58_implementation_intentions.md