~1000 words. 4 min read.

The Attorney Who Knew What Time It Really Was

When my brother started his career as a freshly-minted attorney, he regularly worked 12-hour days. Not once in a while - most days. I was still in college at that time and from afar, what he did looked like part gladiator school, part mental triathlon. In any case, it didn’t incentivize me to rush my college experience.
I remember asking him—genuinely confused, possibly while trying to shock myself to life with a Monster Energy Drink at 10 AM—“How the hell do you do that without burning out?”

His answer wasn’t about caffeine or superhuman willpower. It was this:
“I just do the right kind of work at the right time of day.”

In his world, mornings were for deep thinking - legal research and problem-solving. After breakfast, he’d tackle the toughest cognitive tasks before the world started yelling at him. Afternoons? Those were for meetings and team coordination—stuff that required attention but not deep brain waves. Evenings were for clients, where being charming and responsive was the currency.

At the time, I thought this was some kind of lawyer wizardry and I put the Business Law textbook back into the drawer. But it turns out, he had just embraced something science has long proven: energy management is more important than time management.

Why “Just Block the Time” Doesn’t Work

Let’s get something straight. Time management is not wrong—it’s just dangerously incomplete. Time is a flat circle. You and Beyoncé both get 24 hours. And if that were the only variable, we’d all have Grammys and business empires.

But not all hours are created equal.

That pristine, hopeful 9:00 AM hour where your brain is freshly caffeinated? That’s not the same as 3:47 PM when you’re coming off two meetings and a microwaved lunch that may or may not have been lasagna. (A separate article on running a global product team, where those lovely time differences add a special layer of complexity will be coming soon!)

And yet, most of us treat time like a neutral currency. Calendar says “strategy meeting” from 4:00 to 5:00? Sure, great. Let’s try to perform deep thinking right when our energy is begging us to lie down in the fetal position and scroll Instagram.

The problem isn’t the plan—it’s when the plan happens.

Human Energy Science (You’re not a Machine. Yet.)

A recent trip to Europe ruthlessly reminded me: We’re all walking circadian clocks. Hormone production, alertness, mood - most people live through this kind of a pattern every 24 hours:

Morning (for most people): Ideal for focused work. Cortisol is high, the brain is sharp, and decision-making is strong.
Afternoon: Alertness drops slightly; coordination and reaction times are still decent. Better for collaborative tasks or lower-stakes meetings.
Evening: Mood stabilizes, creativity may spike, but mental stamina declines. Great for casual conversations, socializing, or emails that start with “Just looping back...”

This isn’t just anecdotal. A 2016 study from PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) showed that mental performance follows a predictable daily curve, tied to our body’s internal temperature, hormone levels, and neural firing patterns. Translation: your brain has a natural rhythm, and if you ignore it, it ignores you back.

Also, another study in Chronobiology International (yes, that’s a real journal) found that cognitive performance could fluctuate up to 20% based on the time of day and chronotype alignment. That’s the difference between “excellent strategy” and “why did I reply-all with that?”

Your Energy Audit: Do This Instead

Instead of jamming every task into a calendar and expecting excellence across the board, audit your energy.

Ask yourself:

When am I naturally most alert?
What parts of the day make me crash—hard?
What kinds of work make me feel drained vs. energized?

Once you’ve tracked this for a week or two (not forever, we’re not launching a quantified-self startup), you’ll start to see patterns. Use those to rebuild your schedule around energy peaks and valleys.

The result might look something like this:

*A typical energy schedule - but energy management is personalized productivity, not a one-size-fits-all time cult.*

Energy Management > Time Management

Let’s break this down with a little side-by-side:

*You don’t need more hours in your day. You need more high-quality energy during the hours you already have.*

Okay, But What If My Boss Just Wants Stuff Done at 4 PM?

First of all, send them this blog post. (You’re welcome.)

Second, you can still work within constraints. The idea isn’t to become a productivity diva who only works during their "inspiration window." It’s to use your best hours wisely so you have the energy to tackle the less ideal stuff when it comes.

Try this:

Stack your most important work during peak hours.
Use low-energy periods for movement, breaks, or low-effort admin.
Communicate with your team about how you work best (and ask them, too).
Reframe your schedule as a performance map, not a jail sentence.

Final Thoughts: Burn Bright, Don’t Burn Out

The productivity industry sold us on the lie that if we just scheduled better, prioritized better, blocked off more time, we’d reach Nirvana. But no one asked if we’d have any gas in the tank to drive there.

Energy management isn’t a luxury—it’s the core engine of consistent, high-impact work. And once you align your work to your natural rhythms, you’ll not only get more done… you’ll actually feel good doing it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my energy’s dipping and my calendar says “deep strategic planning.” Time to go take a walk, refuel, and push that meeting to when my brain isn’t plotting its escape.

Don’t Manage Time. Manage Energy. (Your Outlook Calendar is Lying to You.)