|
Key insights from
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect
Timing
By
Daniel H. Pink
|
|
|
What you’ll learn
The self-help shelves at bookstores and libraries are
teeming with titles about how to successfully do x, y and z.
This book is less about “how to” and more about “when to.” Daniel Pink’s When
is the synthesis of over 700 studies from fields as diverse as biology,
neuroscience, anthropology, economics and social psychology. His aim is to
show that timing in life is not an art, but a science. Pink’s book is full
of fascinating facts and practical suggestions for when it is best to take
action.
Read on for key insights from When.
|
|
1. For most
people, the average day follows a pattern of peak, trough and rebound.
Some of life’s patterns hide in plain view, so commonplace
that we don’t even notice them. Two professors of sociology from Cornell
discovered one such pattern fairly recently while studying Twitter trends.
These scholars analyzed half a billion tweets from over 2 million users in
84 countries to find what people were feeling and when they usually had
those feelings.
They found that there is a pattern of peak, trough and rebound
during the course of a day for most people. The morning tweets tended to be
more positive, hopeful and energetic. This positivity would taper off
during the afternoon until about 5 p.m., and then pick back up by early
evening. This pattern was the same across time zones, cultures, climates,
religious value systems and geographical location. This positive affect was
generally higher on weekends, but the basic shape of the curve remained
intact: peak, trough, rebound.
Other studies have examined factors related to positive and
negative affect, like feelings of happiness, warmth toward others, general
enjoyment of life and emotional stability. Unlike the Cornell study, which
extrapolated mood from tweets, these studies involved self-reported
feelings on a pre-established rating system, which increases accuracy of
the findings (although it’s hard to beat a sample size of 500 million
tweets!). In all these cases, the shape of the curve was extremely similar.
These findings have remarkable and important implications
for life and when to make decisions.
|
|
2. From the
simplest to the most complex, internal biological timers go on and off
precisely when needed, without the organism consciously monitoring the
process.
Typically when people hear the phrase circadian rhythm, they
think of wake-sleep cycles, but that is just one of many. The word
“circadian” is derived from the Latin words circa (around, about)
and diem (day).
Many of the most critical circadian rhythms are regulated by
a tiny portion of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Amazingly,
these bio-clocks not only track internal rhythms, but harmonize them with
external patterns like social queues such as work and transportation
schedules, and with environmental indicators like the sun’s position. This
is a completely unconscious, involuntary process known as entrainment.
There are broad patterns, but the syncing process varies significantly from
person to person.
|
|
3. Knowing your
peak hours for productivity will help you know when to make important
decisions and complete tasks.
People perform better at different times of day. Some people
are morning people; others enjoy staying up late; most everyone falls
somewhere in between. A person’s chronotype plays a big role in determining
windows of optimal performance. The three chronotypes are morning lark,
night owl and “third birds.”
Genetics is the primary determinant of chronotype. Another
factor is age - children tend to be larks, and drift toward later starts as
they move into adolescence. Another factor is season of birth: Those born
in fall and winter tend to be larks, while those born in spring or summer
tend to be night owls.
Scientists have given the intersection of time and biology
more attention since the 1970s. There are involved tests to determine
chronotype like the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, but the simplest way
to determine your chronotype is answering three questions: If there are no
tasks that would obligate you to rise earlier than you’d prefer, what time
would you usually go to bed? wake up? Lastly, what is the mid-point between
those times? So, if you usually fall asleep around 11:00 p.m. and wake up
around 7:00 a.m., then your midpoint is 3:00 a.m.
This is significant because peak performance hours will vary
with chronotype. Larks will maximize output by doing analytical tasks early
in the morning; saving insight-oriented tasks for the late afternoon or
early evening; and making important decisions in the early morning. For the
third birds — which is most of you — take on your analytical tasks
mid-morning, and insight tasks in the early evening. Make important
decisions in the early or mid-morning. Night owls, save your analytical
tasks for the late afternoon or evening, insight-oriented tasks for the
morning, and decision-making for the late afternoon and evening.
Unfortunately for the night owls, the best time to make impressions is
always the morning, given the near-universal morning peak in positivity and
emotional stability.
|
|
|
|
4. Taking breaks
improves finesse, productivity, mood, and decision-making during afternoon
slumps.
Afternoon hours in hospitals are not always a pretty sight.
Maybe you have not noticed a discernible difference, but studies have shown
that critical oversights are far more likely in the afternoon than the
morning: misdiagnoses, unhelpful or even harmful prescriptions, diminished
powers of observation and decision-making. Lethal doses of anesthesia are
administered three times more often in the afternoon than in the morning.
Every hour after twelve noon signals a five percent decline
in chances of discovering polyps in a colonoscopy procedure, thus
diminishing the chances of an accurate, potentially life-saving diagnosis.
The University of Michigan Medical Center is aware of this
common propensity, and has taken measures to ensure that their doctors and
surgeons stay sharp. They have introduced mandatory “time-outs” or
vigilance breaks, which give personnel a quick pause before performing
sensitive procedures that require clear thinking and precision. Surgical
mortality rate decreased by 18 percent.
Since integrating protocols that mandate pauses and
double-checks, University of Michigan’s Medical Unit has noticed a
significant drop in logistical and procedural mistakes, improvement in
patient care and more positive doctor-patient vibes. So if that important
surgery is scheduled for the afternoon, it’s advisable to get that time
changed.
Of course it’s not just the doctors’ performance that
suffers during this rut. Car accidents are extremely frequent between 2
p.m. and 4:00 pm. People tend to be more prone to moral failure in the
afternoon than the morning, a phenomenon social psychologists refer to as
“morning morality effect.”
In schools where students get 20- or 30-minute breaks to
socialize and play before exams, scores tend to be higher. Some
Scandinavian countries require four or more breaks during the course of the
day.
Unfortunately, courts are not unaffected. Breaks tend to
effect leniency of rulings. Judges are far more likely to issue a ruling in
favor of the defendant—or at least a lenient sentence—immediately after
midday or afternoon breaks. Those chances dwindle over time, until another
break refreshes and ushers in a new wave of goodwill.
There are no hard-and-fast rules about taking vigilance
breaks. Generally speaking, a small break is better than no break; movement
is preferable to staying stationary; a social element is preferable to
isolation; and taking a break outside is better than staying indoors. That
Vitamin D and glimpse of nature have rejuvenating effects.
|
|
5. The midlife
crisis is overdramatized, but midpoints are still a force to be reckoned
with.
Life is better understood as a collection of seasons than a
neat and tidy linear progression. When we look back on these seasons, their
beginnings and ends are clearly defined by images and events, but the
middle is usually hazier.
It is common for these midpoints to be disorienting—many
people get antsy; start spinning their wheels; and lose sight of why they
started a project in the first place. Perhaps the most infamous midpoint is
the mid-life crisis. An obscure Canadian psychoanalyst named Elliott Jaques
coined the term in 1965 in an essay that raised the question of why a
number of prolific artists like Mozart, Raphael, van Gogh and other
notables died at the age of thirty-seven—sometimes quite tragically. Jaques
concluded that when people reach their life’s midpoint, they experience a
period of depression as they face their mortality with fresh eyes. The two
paths that people take are to accept their fate, or run and hide from it by
indulging in extravagant distractions.
The so-called midlife crisis has become an entrenched
cultural convention, but research is now showing a pattern that’s far less
dramatic than many have come to believe. Studies have shown that sense of
wellbeing does dip around middle age, but this is far from the precipitous
plunge that Jaques (and now pop culture) has detailed. Across cultures,
continents, social and economic strata, the pattern is the same: a soft
U-shaped curve that declines over the thirties and forties but then
rebounds from fifty onward. In fact, life satisfaction is generally higher
among octogenarians than among college students.
Whether the curve is shallow or steep, however, it still
affects us—not just over a lifespan, but in smaller projects and life
events as well. Halfway through just about anything we start, zeal dips at
the midpoint. Why does this slump take place?
Some theorize that it’s fear of unfulfilled hopes and
expectations. Others offer a more social explanation—that we want people to
think well of us, so we try hard to make good first and final impressions,
but to sustain it is impossible.
Whatever the explanation, it seems that in all these
instances there’s something mysterious that overtakes us and hijacks our
autonomy. The half-time lull is a virtual inevitability, but we don’t need
to view the outcomes of the lull in a fatalistic light.
The midpoint can be a slump, but it can also be transformed
into an invigorating spark. Your best shot at making a comeback is to view
midpoints as “uh-oh” moments rather than “oh, no” moments. The first is a wake-up
call; the second is surrender.
The mental alarm bells that go off are not the death knell
but a call to action. Use the stress to your advantage. Studies show that
the period of time immediately following that midpoint alarm is often the
most productive. When that alarm goes off, pretend (though maybe you won’t
have to pretend) that you’re a bit behind—but not by much. This will
generate the spark to up your game instead of up and run away.
|
|
6. Being in sync
is important—not only at an individual level, but also at a group level.
Timing matters not only for individuals but also for groups.
Learning how to make the most of beginnings, midpoints, and endings is
critical; but so many facets of life require coordination and cooperation
with others. Far from an obstacle, this process of syncing with groups is
essential to surviving and thriving as humans.
There is a “high” that comes from being synced with others.
Activities that can foster the sync are singing with a choir, running with
others, dancing, doing yoga or cooking with friends. The tremendous
physical benefits of some of these are obvious enough. Running provides
exercise, socializing and keeping pace with your fellow runners. Yoga
increases control of breath, which helps with hormone and stress
regulation. Studies have even found surprising physical benefits to singing
in a choir, such as a relaxed heart rate, an uptick in endorphins,
increased immunity, even lessening the effects of irritable bowel syndrome.
The psychological benefits of syncing activities are also
significant. They help provide a sense of belonging to a tribe, where
individual identities are healed and enriched, where people feel connected
to something bigger than themselves. Doing something together (and learning
to do it well) also contributes to positive mood and alleviation of
depression. To build in-group rapport, respond to messages promptly, share
stories of personal hardship and develop unique group customs. Adding
special garb, insignia, codes and affirming physical touch all help
strengthen group bonds.
|
|
Endnotes
These insights are
just an introduction. If you're ready to dive deeper, pick up a copy of When: The
Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing here. And since we get a commission on
every sale, your purchase will help keep this newsletter free.
*
This is sponsored content
|
|
|
This newsletter is powered by Thinkr, a smart reading app for the
busy-but-curious. For full access to hundreds of titles — including audio —
go premium and download the app today.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment