I recently finished the book, When, The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink and then I conducted some additional research on this topic. The commentary that follows is put together in an effort to help you think about timing and how this can impact your and others’ stress and productivity and have a direct impact on the bottom line profitability. This also ties into my primary focus on overcoming conflict with collaboration.
In his text, the Daniel H. Pink points out a host of items that may very well help you with others, whether you are in conflict with others or simply working with or negotiating with others. You do not have to be in conflict with someone else to learn from this information. This information can also help you with others that you get along with just fine. The items presented below may help you with all of your contacts. This information is based on a world-wide research and although general in nature it provides some real insights. Of course, we are all individuals so exceptions to these findings are expected, but
by giving some thought to this information, you may be able to apply these types of techniques to help yourself and others.
It should be noted in the text that in some instances information is provided that shows distributions of various segments of the broader population. These graphs offer additional insights regarding normal expectations and outliers within the population to certain nuances of the information. I found these helpful on a personal level as well as more broadly in application to others.
I highly recommend reading Daniel H. Pink’s book.
- Positive mood rises in the morning shortly after we start our day and then dips in the afternoon, rising to an even greater positive mood in the evening.
- People enjoy themselves more as the morning unfolds and then enjoy themselves less after lunch for the rest of the day in a normal workday. They begin enjoying themselves again in the evening.
- The best time to carry out a particular task depends on the task. Our best deductive thinking is in the morning. Same more mundane tasks for the afternoon.
- We have a wide range of sleep habits, but most of us are what are known as third birds. That means if we consider our sleep habits on our “free days” they can provide us with some real insights. If we average what time we normally go to sleep and when we normally wake up that is the referred to as the midpoint of our sleep. For most of us that is between 3 am and 5 am. Of course, how much sleep and when we sleep is important too.
- Here are some tips for a better morning:
- Drink a glass of water when you wake up
- Don’t drink coffee immediately after you wake up
- Soak up the morning sun
- Schedule talk-therapy appointments for the morning
- Judges are more lenient after taking a break. Just knowing this, what might that say about when you may want to schedule a meeting with your boss or a difficult associate. Maybe you may want to take a break before bringing up something controversial.
- Eating or not eating breakfast really does not seem to matter.
- Taking a nap for 20 minutes or less seems to have a very positive effect on cognitive functioning after awakening (I knew a manager that took a 15-minute nap during his lunch half hour every day. This really seemed to benefit him. He was able to fall asleep in a very short period of time. It turns out this was better for him than I knew at the time.)
- In the text the author offers a host of ideas regarding how to beat the afternoon trough time, five kinds of breaks with the impacts of each, how experts in their fields pause for peak performance, and other topics of interest.
These are a few of the most pertinent tips that I thought you may also find most interesting and be able to apply to your work and home life. I suggest you check out the book When, The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.
Conducting some additional research,
I wanted to offer some other ideas regarding timing.
This article offers some additional insights and suggests for better productivity:
- When working on a “heads down time” activity being able to work in or being able to retreat to a distraction free zone significantly increases productivity. This runs contrary to the open office concept promoted by some parties. When considering the open office concept a number of other considerations should includedm and clear boundaries discussed and clarified to avoid a complete disaster.
- Another study from the article suggests taking time for silence restores the nervous system. This is consistent with studies on mindfulness.
- Having open space plans actually reduce productivity and having interruptions and work place noise actually increases stress and reduces productivity.
- By actually planning uninterrupted time this can significantly improve productivity and reduce stress.
What does all of this have to with profitability and timing?
By knowing a little more about how we work cognitively and considering the individual characteristics of who we are working with, collaborating with, or negotiating with the items above should provide you with food for thought about yourself and with whom you are working with on a specific activity. Hopefully these items will give you some ideas to consider timing, and how by considering time you can reduce your and others’ stress, improve productivity and make better use of your and their time.
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