Your Most Productive Hours Are Limited — Protect Them

Most people have about two to four hours of peak mental performance per day. That is it. The rest of the day you are running on lower gears — still functional, but not at your sharpest. If you spend those golden hours on email, meetings, or busywork, you have burned through your best thinking time on things that did not need it.

Figure out when your peak hours happen — for most people it is the morning — and guard them ruthlessly. Put your hardest, most important work there. Everything else can wait.