When’s your most unproductive point of the day

The study by business property experts LondonOffices.com, asked 420 workers to cite the time they felt they were at their least productive. The average time was then taken.

Workers claimed around this time they suffered from a post lunch lull but said a strong coffee or bar of chocolate often got them on the move again.

Some confessed to using this time to check their social media profiles whilst other said it was when they started planning their evening’s activities.

On the other hand however, workers believed that they were at their most productive at 10:26am after having checked and responded to emails and planned their working day.

The second most productive time was identified as 4:16pm with respondents claiming that by this time they were rushing to complete any outstanding tasks from the day.

Many respondents admitted that they begin to ‘mentally switch off’ from work on average 18 minutes before the end of their day.

However, almost three quarters (72%) admitted that they regularly worked past their official leaving time by at least 10 minutes.

LondonOffices.com spokesperson, Michael Davies commented: “We all have peaks and troughs when it comes to our levels of productivity, but the trick is to maintain a steady work level rather than swing between extremes.

“Often if people have a burst of energy and get a shed load of work done in one hour, they maybe underperform for the next two.

“I would recommend people take a few five minute ‘mini-breaks’ throughout the day. This could include popping to the water fountain, grabbing a cup of tea or even a quick walk round the office. That way they keep fresh throughout the day, instead of having big bursts of energy then nothing.”

One respondent commented: “I tend to go all out in the morning and power through loads of my tasks, the trouble is after lunch I’m completely whacked until I have some sugar – that normally keeps me going until the end of the day.”

Another man who took part in the study said: “I must confess as soon as the clock shows 3pm, I begin to start planning my evening and at about the same time my productivity does take a bit of a hit.

“Saying that – the more unproductive I am in the afternoon the longer I have to stay after work to get stuff finished.”