MORNING
Have sex
Marianne Johnson, relationship and psychosexual therapist
If you’ve got young children, or are living with your parents, then there are going to be some practical issues that probably stand in the way of morning sex. But if not, there are various benefits to sex that suggest morning is the ideal time. For example, studies show your stress response improves with recent intercourse. Your energy levels are higher and you will boost your oxytocin levels, increasing feelings of bonding, trust and relaxation, which makes for a pretty good way to start the day. You might just seize the moment or, if that’s not working, schedule it for a time when you know you will be alone – you’d plan a nice meal out, why not sex?
Write a novel
Linda Grant, writer
Most, though not all, writers I know would agree that the morning is the best time to write a novel, when you have just woken up and are close to the dream state before the boring rationality of the day kicks in with its mundane concerns. I wake at around 7.30am and work from around 8.30am for two to three hours. The unconscious and the imagination need to be the master.
Have a difficult conversation
Philippa Perry, psychotherapist and author
We always have our important conversations on a Sunday morning at breakfast. We are fresh, we’ve got nice things to look forward to during the day, and we don’t think of the conversations as “difficult” as much as “interesting”. It is important not to frame things negatively.
Keep a journal
Kara Cutruzzula, author of Do It for Yourself
To reap the benefits of journalling, you must sit down at 6.32am with a cup of oolong tea heated to exactly 84.9C and write 2,200 exquisite words using your favourite pen. Just kidding. But journalling immediately after waking works wonders. Take 10 minutes to set an intention: what do you want to happen today? Scribble your doubts or anxieties and dedicate the space to a meaningful project. Plus, journalling early helps you to avoid a “dread umbrella” – that overhanging feeling that you should do something later in the day (but rarely do).
See a therapist
Anouchka Grose, psychoanalyst
The best time of day to talk to a therapist is 9am. Both of you are likely to feel relatively fresh and you should still be able to remember your dreams. The therapist won’t yet be desensitised or rubbed raw by other people’s traumas, so you can get a fair hearing for your own. Any earlier than that and you risk them resenting you.
Clean the house
Aggie MacKenzie, broadcaster
If you enjoy cleaning, do it at any time in the day; but if it is something that you don’t like, do it as early as possible and get it over with. Another trick is to set a time in your mind you’ve got to be finished: say, clean the bathroom in the next 15 minutes. Do it quickly so it’s not eating into too much of your day.
AFTERNOON
Go on a date
Vicki Pavitt, relationship coach
Keep it light and breezy with a late-morning coffee date, a lunch or early afternoon walk in nature. The beauty of daytime dates is their flexibility – they tend to be shorter so you can be flexible with how things develop. If the conversation isn’t flowing you can always leave it there, but if it is then there is space to keep the date going if you both want to. Alternatively, leave on a high and get the next date booked in.
Nap
Camilla Stoddart, sleep coach
It is best to take a nap when your energy levels are at their lowest, during the mid-afternoon slump – and for most people, that happens around 3pm. Often wrongly blamed on what we eat for lunch, this daily dip in energy and increase in sleepiness is actually part of the circadian rhythm that governs our sleep/wake cycle over 24 hours. Having a 20-minute nap at this point is far enough away from bedtime not to disrupt your sleep and can help improve cognitive function and general alertness for the rest of the day.
Do homework
Lola Okolosie, teacher
The best time to do homework has to be that sweet spot between coming home, relaxing for half an hour and having a snack, and dinner time. You’ve had a brief break from school but are still fresh from lessons and so are able to switch back into the mindset for homework. Any later and it drags into the evening, becoming a dreaded task that you put off. As so much homework is now done online, it is best to keep off devices as the evening progresses so that the blue light from screens does not disrupt sleep.
EVENING
Wash your face
Sali Hughes, Guardian beauty columnist
It is important to cleanse your face twice a day, but the most important of these – the pre-bed removal of sunscreen, makeup and outdoor dirt – feels like the much bigger chore because it comes at a time when you’re likely to be knackered and disinclined to do anything reviving like wash. This is why I always recommend cleansing as soon as you arrive home from work. There is something lovely about taking off the outside world as soon as you return to the nest (I also like to wash my feet – standard practice in many Asian cultures – and change into pyjamas), and that extra motivation you’ll probably lack later makes for a more consistent and careful skincare routine.
Water plants
Alice Vincent, Guardian gardening columnist
I prefer to water in the evening because if you do it in the morning there is every chance it might rain later on, leaving you feeling like a bit of a mug. You don’t want to do it in the middle of the day when it is hot because it will evaporate before it gets to the roots. As environmentally conscious gardeners, we need to be careful how we water and we should be planting things that are drought resistant or pick up water from the soil. When you put plants in the ground, water really well to encourage deeper root growth, which will help them to survive periods of drought. Whenever you water, make sure you do it for long and less often, rather than little and often.
See art
Jonathan Jones, Guardian art critic
Evening is my favourite time to visit a gallery or museum. It feels a bit naughty and grownup to look at art after hours. It is as if the paintings themselves behave differently, slipping into something more comfortable. In summer, in a place like the National Gallery or the V&A that has natural light, the subtle changes in shade and colour add even more mystery. Gallery-going should not be a duty, and in the evening it feels like a true pleasure.
NIGHT
Bake a cake
Kim-Joy, baker
It depends on the type of person. But for me, baking is better at night because there are fewer stimuli. There are fewer interruptions, it’s darker, and everything feels calmer and quieter. Having a relaxed environment makes me feel a lot more creative because my brain is thinking more clearly.
Read a book
Damian Barr, author and founder of Literary Salon
The day is for writing, avoiding emails and pretending not to be on Twitter. Novels and stories come alive in the half-light of the evening. I like to read late at night by lamplight, but not in bed or else there is the temptation to sleep, however good the book is. I find it hard to read if there is noise so prefer the wee hours. The quieter the world is, the more I enjoy whatever it is I am reading.
Listen to music
Alexis Petridis, Guardian rock and pop critic
Something about the night potentiates music. There are all kinds of theories posited as to why music might sound better at that time of day: everything from the fact that there’s less ambient noise and sensory distraction to an increase in melatonin (which, apparently, enhances our perception of sound). For anyone who grew up covertly listening to the radio or on headphones under the covers, perhaps there’s a historical resonance, too, a potent sense of isolation and focus: a direct communication between the music and you.
IT DEPENDS …
Watch a film
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian film critic
There are three distinct “best time” slots for going to the cinema. For groups of three and above, this is after 9pm. For me, this is the more garrulous time – you all have a meal together as close to the cinema as possible, preferably next door (I hate fretting about time), and then troop off for a rousing post-supper evening at the movies. For two people on a date – especially a first date – it’s 6pm and then you go to eat afterwards and have something to talk about. But if you’re going on your own it has to be during the day, preferably just after lunch, or maybe even in the morning, savouring how few people are in there, and afterwards going out flinching into the daylight.
Eat a big meal
Tim Spector, author and co-founder of nutrition app Zoe
We’ve heard the saying: breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper. But as with many food myths, this is wrong. According to Zoe’s data, we actually see no difference between eating in the morning or the evening in terms of blood sugar spikes and metabolising fat. Increasingly, we think that delaying or skipping breakfast could be good for metabolism. I’d encourage people to eat a big meal when they feel happiest doing so, and if they don’t wake up hungry, try delaying breakfast to give their gut microbes time to rest.
Exercise
Omar Mansour, personal trainer
A morning training session can be more productive and improve your mood throughout the day, since exercise releases endorphins, those feelgood hormones. I complete low-intensity cardio at around 10am in order to wake up my body and central nervous system. Having said that, energy and performance tends to improve later on, as most people have higher levels of testosterone as the day goes on. Therefore, you may want to do a strength session in the evening, at around 6pm, when your hormones are at their optimum level, as this can enhance workout results.
