Episode 45
The Secrets of Perfect Timing: Why “What” You Do is Just as Important as “When” You Do It | Daniel H. Pink
Episode 45
Daniel H. Pink
The Secrets of Perfect Timing: Why “What” You Do is Just as Important as “When” You Do It | Daniel H. Pink
summary
Timing is everything, so it’s kind of surprising that most of us don’t give it any serious consideration. We think about what things we want to do. We think about who we want to do these things with. When we want to do something is generally our final consideration — if we consider it at all.
Take college students, for example. They must take classes in art, math, history, science, and a host of other fields. Each year, just before the semester begins, students flock to their computers and plot out the class schedules that will govern their lives for the next five months. Their top considerations are when their friends are taking classes, how they can avoid getting up early, and how they can ensure their classes are all on the same day so that they get a few extra days off.
This is a bit of a problem.
As Daniel Pink notes in his latest book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, there is a biological reality to our daily rhythms. This means that, at certain times, we are better at problem solving. At others, we perform better when it comes to creative endeavors. It may seem counterintuitive, but we each have a biological clock that has a material impact on our lives. Put simply, the time that we choose to do something alters our performance, influences our wellbeing, and shapes our overall experience. So if we are making decisions about when to do things on an impulse or according to whatever happens to be convenient, in many ways, we are setting ourselves up for failure.
However, there is a solution to this problem. It’s known as “chronobiology,” and it allows us to make fact-based decisions about when we should do things. By using chronobiology — by following the natural patterns found in our biology — we can help ensure that we are at our peak performance when we attempt any given task.
But how can we tell what our natural cycle is? How do we know if we are making good when-based decisions? In this episode, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Pink about the science of perfect timing and why when we do something is just as important as what we doand how well we do it.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
bio
Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, which has spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into 37 languages. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and their three children.
Pink was host and co-executive producer of “Crowd Control,” a television series about human behavior on the National Geographic Channel. He also appears frequently on NPR’s Hidden Brain, the PBS NewsHour, and other TV and radio networks in the US and abroad.
He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications. In 2007, he was a Japan Society Media fellow in Tokyo, where he studied the country’s massive comic industry.
For the last six years, London-based Thinkers 50 named him, alongside Michael Porter and Clayton Christensen, as one of the top 15 business thinkers in the world.
Pink’s TED Talk on the science of motivation is one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, with more than 19 million views. His RSA Animate video about the ideas in his book, Drive, has collected more than 14 million views.
He currently serves on the advisory boards of RiseSmart, Betterment Institutional, Heleo, and Hubspot.
Before venturing out on his own 20 years ago, Dan worked in several positions in politics and government, including serving from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore.
He received a BA from Northwestern University, where he was a Truman Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Yale Law School. He has also received honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, the Pratt Institute, the Ringling College of Art and Design, and Westfield State University.
Pink and his wife live in Washington, DC. They have three children — a college junior, a college freshman, and a high school freshman.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Re mihi non aeque satisfacit, et quidem locis pluribus. Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Sequitur disserendi ratio cognitioque naturae; Quod autem principium officii quaerunt, melius quam Pyrrho; Tria genera bonorum; Mihi, inquam, qui te id ipsum rogavi?
Ergo opifex plus sibi proponet ad formarum quam civis excellens ad factorum pulchritudinem? Non quaero, quid dicat, sed quid convenienter possit rationi et sententiae suae dicere. In parvis enim saepe, qui nihil eorum cogitant, si quando iis ludentes minamur praecipitaturos alicunde, extimescunt. Fortitudinis quaedam praecepta sunt ac paene leges, quae effeminari virum vetant in dolore. Videamus igitur sententias eorum, tum ad verba redeamus. Hoc enim constituto in philosophia constituta sunt omnia.
Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Partim cursu et peragratione laetantur, congregatione aliae coetum quodam modo civitatis imitantur; Addo etiam illud, multa iam mihi dare signa puerum et pudoris et ingenii, sed aetatem vides. Apparet statim, quae sint officia, quae actiones. Nec vero alia sunt quaerenda contra Carneadeam illam sententiam. Sed tamen intellego quid velit.
Licet hic rursus ea commemores, quae optimis verbis ab Epicuro de laude amicitiae dicta sunt. Qui non moveatur et offensione turpitudinis et comprobatione honestatis? Nos commodius agimus. Philosophi autem in suis lectulis plerumque moriuntur. Id enim volumus, id contendimus, ut officii fructus sit ipsum officium. Isto modo ne improbos quidem, si essent boni viri. Scio enim esse quosdam, qui quavis lingua philosophari possint; Et quidem iure fortasse, sed tamen non gravissimum est testimonium multitudinis. His singulis copiose responderi solet, sed quae perspicua sunt longa esse non debent. Dat enim intervalla et relaxat.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam nec vir bonus ac iustus haberi debet qui, ne malum habeat, abstinet se ab iniuria. Et quidem illud ipsum non nimium probo et tantum patior, philosophum loqui de cupiditatibus finiendis. Vitae autem degendae ratio maxime quidem illis placuit quieta. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Hoc ille tuus non vult omnibusque ex rebus voluptatem quasi mercedem exigit. Hoc non est positum in nostra actione. Aliud igitur esse censet gaudere, aliud non dolere. Quid enim me prohiberet Epicureum esse, si probarem, quae ille diceret? Pisone in eo gymnasio, quod Ptolomaeum vocatur, unaque nobiscum Q. Huic mori optimum esse propter desperationem sapientiae, illi propter spem vivere.
Torquatus, is qui consul cum Cn. Perturbationes autem nulla naturae vi commoventur, omniaque ea sunt opiniones ac iudicia levitatis. Primum quid tu dicis breve? Intellegi quidem, ut propter aliam quampiam rem, verbi gratia propter voluptatem, nos amemus;
ALIO MODO. At, si voluptas esset bonum, desideraret. Quam illa ardentis amores excitaret sui! Cur tandem? Sin autem est in ea, quod quidam volunt, nihil impedit hanc nostram comprehensionem summi boni. Ex ea difficultate illae fallaciloquae, ut ait Accius, malitiae natae sunt. Quid igitur dubitamus in tota eius natura quaerere quid sit effectum? Summus dolor plures dies manere non potest? Nemo nostrum istius generis asotos iucunde putat vivere. Nam prius a se poterit quisque discedere quam appetitum earum rerum, quae sibi conducant, amittere.
Universa enim illorum ratione cum tota vestra confligendum puto. Haec igitur Epicuri non probo, inquam. Si stante, hoc natura videlicet vult, salvam esse se, quod concedimus; Respondent extrema primis, media utrisque, omnia omnibus.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Tamen aberramus a proposito, et, ne longius, prorsus, inquam, Piso, si ista mala sunt, placet. Homines optimi non intellegunt totam rationem everti, si ita res se habeat. Sed fac ista esse non inportuna; Miserum hominem! Si dolor summum malum est, dici aliter non potest. Quasi ego id curem, quid ille aiat aut neget. Ego vero isti, inquam, permitto.
Beatum, inquit. Praeterea sublata cognitione et scientia tollitur omnis ratio et vitae degendae et rerum gerendarum. Post enim Chrysippum eum non sane est disputatum. Mihi, inquam, qui te id ipsum rogavi? In motu et in statu corporis nihil inest, quod animadvertendum esse ipsa natura iudicet? Sed eum qui audiebant, quoad poterant, defendebant sententiam suam. Nemo igitur esse beatus potest. Etenim nec iustitia nec amicitia esse omnino poterunt, nisi ipsae per se expetuntur. Sed haec ab Antiocho, familiari nostro, dicuntur multo melius et fortius, quam a Stasea dicebantur. Dolere malum est: in crucem qui agitur, beatus esse non potest.
Ego vero volo in virtute vim esse quam maximam; Quarum ambarum rerum cum medicinam pollicetur, luxuriae licentiam pollicetur. Itaque sensibus rationem adiunxit et ratione effecta sensus non reliquit. At modo dixeras nihil in istis rebus esse, quod interesset. Tenesne igitur, inquam, Hieronymus Rhodius quid dicat esse summum bonum, quo putet omnia referri oportere?
Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Maximas vero virtutes iacere omnis necesse est voluptate dominante. Levatio igitur vitiorum magna fit in iis, qui habent ad virtutem progressionis aliquantum.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quae in controversiam veniunt, de iis, si placet, disseramus. Sed quid sentiat, non videtis. Nihilne est in his rebus, quod dignum libero aut indignum esse ducamus? Sunt enim prima elementa naturae, quibus auctis vírtutis quasi germen efficitur.
Nonne igitur tibi videntur, inquit, mala? Hunc ipsum Zenonis aiunt esse finem declarantem illud, quod a te dictum est, convenienter naturae vivere. Sed utrum hortandus es nobis, Luci, inquit, an etiam tua sponte propensus es? Atqui, inquam, Cato, si istud optinueris, traducas me ad te totum licebit. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Sed tamen est aliquid, quod nobis non liceat, liceat illis.
Qua ex cognitione facilior facta est investigatio rerum occultissimarum. Scaevola tribunus plebis ferret ad plebem vellentne de ea re quaeri. Nec vero alia sunt quaerenda contra Carneadeam illam sententiam. Quodsi ipsam honestatem undique pertectam atque absolutam. Miserum hominem! Si dolor summum malum est, dici aliter non potest. Praeclare hoc quidem. Negat esse eam, inquit, propter se expetendam.
Quid enim de amicitia statueris utilitatis causa expetenda vides. Quid paulo ante, inquit, dixerim nonne meministi, cum omnis dolor detractus esset, variari, non augeri voluptatem? Consequentia exquirere, quoad sit id, quod volumus, effectum. Ut placet, inquit, etsi enim illud erat aptius, aequum cuique concedere. Cum autem venissemus in Academiae non sine causa nobilitata spatia, solitudo erat ea, quam volueramus. Ergo adhuc, quantum equidem intellego, causa non videtur fuisse mutandi nominis.