How you use the time change in your home office for yourself

Help. Time change again. We set the clock back on the morning of October 31st. Fortunately, it’s not so bad in autumn, the watch madness only gets really nasty in spring. And the time change in autumn has some advantages – after all, it is Central European Standard Time, i.e. the time that is roughly appropriate for our degrees of longitude.

The time change is annoying. The changeover to summer time in spring makes daily routines difficult, people tired, children whimpering. Switching to wintertime acts like an excuse for the inconvenience of spring. Normal times here at last. At least if everything is not supposed to be different overnight.

This does not save energy, and the changeover has been controversial for several years. The EU Parliament had actually decided to abolish them. States can decide for themselves which time they choose. Germany tends towards the more unnatural summer time than normal time. However, the subject has not yet been dealt with by the European Council and therefore it is still a long time. Great chaos is feared. However, the USA and Canada switch to different times – and even have multiple time zones. That too has not yet led to the collapse. So the chances are good.

Until further notice, however, we are changing the clocks. People can take full advantage of the time change when they work flexibly or in the home office. But even those who drive to their companies can use the winter time for themselves if they know what the circumstances of time and climate do to the body.

In autumn we set the clock back one hour. Eselsbrücke: Nature withdraws and we do that with the clock hands too. Specifically, this means: If you wake up regularly at 7 a.m. without an alarm clock and well rested, you do so at 6 a.m. If you are usually tired around 11 p.m., you are now at 10 p.m. Fortunately, the same applies to the children. For light this means: it is light earlier in the morning and dark earlier in the evening.
And that’s all very well. It is only uncomfortable when the body does not have time to adapt. Some factors to get the autumn off to a better start:

It is actually harder for people to get out of bed in the darker months of the year. This is because there is no daylight. Even small amounts of the bluish morning light wake you up in the morning and get fit faster. By changing the time, the eyes get more light from one day to the next. The additional hour is therefore a grace period. You can invest part of the time saved in sleep, and part in starting the day more relaxed. And for all those who regularly sleep less than they would like to: Try and see if it works now. You would have time.

Humans have natural highs and lows during the day. Most people have a high in the morning, a low in the morning, then the eating coma and another high in the afternoon. Now simply continuing to work stubbornly according to the clock serves neither the work nor the feeling. Plan your days so that you align yourself with the biorhythm that you actually have. And if you were most productive between 8 and 10 a.m., then you may be between 7 and 9 a.m. The main thing is that the work is done.

The really mean thing about the time change in winter is that runs through the park are no longer possible after an early evening. At least for everyone who doesn’t want to walk in the dark or who can’t for safety reasons. The big advantage in the home office and for the self-employed: You can run or cycle during the day, whatever you like to do. Those who go into the light during the day fall asleep better in the evening. The sooner the better.

Those who want to get the worst out of the clock change meet in the evening at the company or sit long before the video conference. The screen light wakes you up, but driving back late makes you tired. If you want a smoother transition, you allow your body to come to rest in the evening in the first week and this is exactly what you demand.

The time change can best be used when people have the opportunity to work freely according to their personal energy level. Stubbornly insisting on fixed working hours will not serve the work, it will damage it. The internal clock is not a fault in the human system that needs to be overcome. It is a factor that can be used for good work and pleasant working days.