The most productive time of the office day is?

Productivity. In an era of always-on technology and continual interruptions, being able to solely focus on ones work for extended periods of time can prove rather tricky.

According to data from call answering, message taking and virtual office specialists MessageBase, the early bird really does catch the worm ? as the post coffee, pre-lunch period is the most productive time of the office day, accounting for a sizeable 13.5% chunk of the day?s tasks.

MessageBase created a model of the typical office day from four years of research into office productivity and the call handling patterns of more than 1,000 businesses.

Findings show:

?      The biggest jump in productivity occurs between 9am-10am.

?      Workers hit their stride mid-morning for one of the most productive periods of the day, between 10am and 12pm. This is when 25% of the day?s work is accomplished.

?      The post coffee break period – 11am-12pm – showed the biggest productivity spike in the working day, with a sizeable 13.5% of the daily workload achieved.

?      Added together with the period from 2pm-4pm, these two slots together result in the achievement of 50% of the daily workload. 

Another nationwide survey, this time conducted by TCG, also confirms the above findings, with 63% of advertising and marketing executives saying they feel most productive in the morning. When it comes to generating new ideas, 72% of respondents said they feel most creative before noon.

The MessageBase research found a lunchtime lull, as would be expected. As a comparison:

?      Offices were 39% more productive at the turbocharged 11.30am slot than at 1.30pm.

?      Following the 2pm-4pm busy period, comes the biggest productivity slump, between 5pm and 6pm, as employees wind down for the end of the working day.

MessageBase director Nicholas Ashford said: ?MessageBase has spent four years gathering research and translated this wealth of data into a detailed timeline of office productivity. Our findings show that even though many businesses operate over an eight-hour working day, there are some surprising peaks, as well as the expected troughs in productivity throughout the day?It would appear that in the UK, we really do accomplish more after a coffee break.?