How to convince your boss to let you set your own hours

Some people genuinely enjoy the structure of a 9 to 5 schedule. But it's certainly not for everyone. And, as it turns out, there are tons of benefits of setting your own hours - though some managers are hesitant to offer employees that kind of flexibility.

Over the last few months, psychologist Ron Friedman, the founder of Ignite80 and author of "The Best Place to Work," has been organizing an online summit on peak work performance, featuring his discussions with 26 of the world's top productivity experts, including Daniel Pink, Gretchen Rubin, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Tracy Brower.

During his conversation with Brower, a work environment sociologist, global VP at Mars Drinks, and author of "Bring Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: A Guide for Leaders and Organizations," they talked about the importance of a flexible work schedule.

Friedman said people often assume they'll have a lot more flexibility as they climb the corporate ladder. "But in fact, it's kind of funny because after a certain point, you reach the mid-level and that's probably the peak of your flexibility. After a while it actually tends to go down again."

As people ascend up the proverbial ladder, they need to learn how to achieve greater flexibility, he adds. "It's important in many cases to have flexibility in the way that you work, in the sense that it will improve your performance to have those options of when and where to work," he explains.

Brower agrees. She says flexibility ends up driving and improving performance - and when you're trying to convince your boss to offer you flexibility, you should remind them of that.

Here are other arguments you could make while convincing your boss to let you set your own hours: