A system and method for optimizing power consumption of energy harvesting nodes in a wireless sensor network. In one embodiment, a system includes a network coordinator. The network coordinator includes a wireless transceiver and a controller. The wireless transceiver is configured to provide access to the wireless sensor network. The controller is configured to determine whether a wireless device that is wirelessly communicating with the network coordinator is powered via energy harvesting. The controller is also configured to schedule, based on a determination that the wireless device is powered via energy harvesting, the wireless device to communicate via the wireless sensor network using a priority timeslot of a superframe of the wireless sensor network. The priority timeslot is a timeslot occurring in an initial portion of the superframe.