Exclusive | Meet the chronoworkers who are ditching the 9 to 5 and following their body clocks instead

Some people call it self-advocacy.Their bosses call it a scheduling headache. Either way, “chronoworking” — structuring your job around your personal circadian rhythm instead of the traditional 9-to-5 — has become the workplace buzzword of the return-to-office era, and it’s already dividing offices into two camps: the biologically enlightened, and the deeply annoyed.The idea is simple.

Not everyone’s brain and body hit peak performance at the same hour.Some people are wired to be sharp at 7 a.m.

and useless by 3 p.m.Others don’t fully wake up until noon and do their best thinking at 9 p.m. Chronoworking — a term coined by British journalist Ellen C.

Scott — argues that instead of forcing every employee into the same fixed shift, companies should let people work when their internal clock says they’ll actually be good at it.It’s not a fringe idea anymore.Clinical psychologist and sleep expert Dr.

Michael Breus, who developed a widely cited four-category chronotype system, found that 55% of people peak between 10 a.m.and 2 p.m.

Fifteen percent are sharpest in the early morning, another 15% peak at night, and the remaining 10% have irregular, easily disrupted rhythms. A 2023 survey of 1,500 American workers by MyPerfectResume found 94% said they’re currently working outside their preferred hours, and 77% said it hurts their job performance.Eloise Skinner isn’t waiting for permission. The 32-year-old London-based writer, fitness coach and therapist doesn’t open her laptop until around 11 a.m., teaches gym classes in the afternoon or early evening, and saves her most demanding work for after 7:30 p.m.— when, as she puts it, “the world has gone quiet,” letting her concentrate far more effectively. A self-described night owl, Skinner has structured her work life around that rhythm across multiple jobs and time zones. “It may seem a bit extreme, but it reflects how intensely I concentrate around 8, 9, or 10 p.m.,” she told Th...