Most of us tend to have a preference for either the morning or the evening, with our internal body clock affecting all manner of things, from our mood to our energy levels.  New research from the University of Vienna suggests that it might also be affecting our creativity.

“I think many people have a feeling for whether they are productive or creative in the morning or in the afternoon or in the evening. But it’s not necessary that you know what your chronotype is and that you organize yourself accordingly. I think what’s important is that you listen to your feelings and inner sense of when is the optimal time for you to be creative. Then you should organize and structure your day accordingly if that’s possible,” the researchers say.

Synchrony matters

The researchers suggest that we’re most creative when our internal, biological clock is aligned with the external clock.  They tested this hypothesis across three studies that all focused on chronotypes and creativity during a working day.  The participants were split equally between morning people, evening people, and those somewhere in the middle.

The creativity of the volunteers was measured by the number of ideas they came up with during the experiment, the originality of the ideas, and the diversity of them.  The task was designed to be as reflective of real-life creativity tasks as possible.

The authors argue that employers should take the chronotype of their employees into account when trying to promote creativity at work.  They suggest that our creative potential fluctuates throughout the day and that this should be considered by managers.

“People differ over whether they have their optimally creative time of the day earlier or later. It’s also important to allow employees, if they need to be creative, to be flexible regarding their work times,” they argue. “That includes work start times and how they structure their days, so they can align their creative tasks with their optimal creative time of day.”

The authors believe that managers should be doing more to try and align the schedules of employees with their chronotypes, or at the very least acknowledge that people are at their best at different times of the day.

What shouldn’t be done, however, is to try and change the chronotypes of employees to better fit the needs of the team.

“This is something that has strong biological roots—you can’t just overcome your chronotype by discipline or acts of self-control.” the authors conclude.