How to Get Time on Your Side
Best-selling author Daniel Pink analyzes more than 700 studies to
reveal the science of perfect timing.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink,
Riverhead Books, 2018
The vagaries of time can be bewildering. One day, you drive
through heavy traffic as if in a perfectly choreographed dance number; the
next, it feels as if you’ve entered a demolition derby. One day, you’re
brimming with ideas; the next, your creativity well is as dry as Death Valley.
Timing is everything, right?
Actually, no. That’s what
Daniel Pink declares in the last sentence of his illuminating and often
surprising new book, When:
The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. “I used to
believe that timing is everything,” he writes. “Now I believe that everything
is timing.”
What Pink means is that
there are predictable oscillations present in the days of our lives, and in
individual and group work, that affect the outcomes we are working toward.
In When, he argues that we can improve our chances of success in
work and life if we simply recognize these oscillations and use them to our
advantage. This may seem akin to casting runes, but in his trademark style,
Pink supports his thesis with a convincing and nuanced reading — and
synthesis — of a wide variety of scientific research.
Much of the research that Pink offers stems from the application
of big data and analytics. Take, for instance, the study of 26,000 earnings
calls from 2,100 companies over a span of six and a half years conducted by
three business professors. They discovered that the tenor of calls and their
effects on stock price are related to the hour in which they are held. Calls
made first thing in the morning tended to be positive. Call results declined
until lunchtime, when there was a small bounce, and then declined again until
after the closing bell.
Pink says that the earnings
call study and many other studies cited in When demonstrate the
existence of consistent daily patterns in our lives. Whether it pertains to
performance, mental acuity, or emotional intelligence, roughly three-quarters
of us are at our best in the morning hours, decline into the afternoon, and
rebound later in the day. “Afternoons are the Bermuda Triangles of our days,”
he writes.
So, the next time you find yourself idling in traffic as a tow
truck clears out a wrecked car, check the time of day. It’s likely to be
mid-afternoon: Pink reports that studies of traffic accidents in countries
including Finland, France, Israel, the U.K., and the U.S. have found that they
peak between 2 and 4 p.m.
When also
explores the role that the beginnings, midpoints, and endings of the activities
play in outcomes. For instance, midpoints have an alarm clock–like effect that
can either dissipate our energy or activate it. A study of 46,000 NCAA
basketball games over 10 years revealed that teams that were behind by one
point at halftime were likely to win the game. “At the midpoint,” Pink tells
athletes, “imagine that you’re behind — but only by a little. That will spark your
motivation and maybe help you win a national championship.”
Finally, Pink takes us to
work with the dabbawalas of Mumbai to illustrate the ways and
means of group synchronicity — a critical element in team and organizational
performance. Six days per week, roughly 5,000 dabbawalas deliver home-cooked
lunches to workers throughout India’s most densely populated city. They pick up
200,000 lunches from the workers’ homes, sort, and deliver them. After the
lunches are eaten, they reverse the process and return the 200,000 empty lunch
containers back to the homes of each worker. The dabbawalas do this by bicycle
and train without the help of digital technology. Yet they have an accuracy
rate that rivals those of FedEx and UPS. This feat is achievable because the
dabbawalas have a fixed pace, a strong sense of coherence, and a unifying
mission — three elements that can be used to synchronize the performance
of any group, according to Pink.
As in his past books, Pink
doesn’t work readers too hard: He appends the practical advice and lessons
of When to each chapter in a “Time Hacker’s Handbook.” For
example, after Chapter 2, Pink recommends that we get through our daily Bermuda
Triangle by taking the “perfect nap.” One surprising tip: Drink a cup of coffee
just before your nap. Why? Because it takes about 25 minutes for the
caffeine to kick in, which happens to be the optimal length for a restorative
siesta.
In his introduction
to When, Pink calls out the sagging shelves of how-to books to
which he himself has contributed. “Think of this book as a new genre altogether
— a when-to book,” he writes. That it is.
by Theodore
Kinni
https://www.strategy-business.com/article/How-to-Get-Time-on-Your-Side
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