When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
About the Book
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT TIMING IS EVERYTHING.
But we don’t know much about timing itself. Our lives are a never-ending stream of ‘when’ decisions: when to start a business, schedule a class, get serious about a person. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork.
Drawing on a rich trove of research from psychology, biology and economics, Daniel H. Pink reveals how we can use the hidden patterns of the day to build the ideal schedule. How can we turn a stumbling beginning into a fresh start? Why should we avoid going to the hospital in the afternoon? Why is singing in time with other people as good for you as exercise? And what is the ideal time to quit a job, switch careers or get married?
WHEN is a fascinating and readable narrative with compelling insights into how we can lead richer, more engaged lives.
‘Pink is rapidly acquiring international guru status.’
Financial Times
Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing.
—MILES DAVIS
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Book
Introduction: Captain Turner’s Decision
PART ONE. THE DAY
1. The Hidden Pattern of Everyday Life
“Across continents and time zones, as predictable as the ocean tides, was the same daily oscillation—a peak, a trough, and a rebound.”
2. Afternoons and Coffee Spoons: The Power of Breaks, the Promise of Lunch, and the Case for a Modern Siesta
“A growing body of science makes it clear: Breaks are not a sign of sloth but a sign of strength.”
PART TWO. BEGINNINGS, ENDINGS, AND IN BETWEEN
3. Beginnings: Starting Right, Starting Again, and Starting Together
“Most of us have harbored a sense that beginnings are significant. Now the science of timing has shown that they’re even more powerful than we suspected. Beginnings stay with us far longer than we know; their effects linger to the end.”
4. Midpoints: What Hanukkah Candles and Midlife Malaise Can Teach Us About Motivation
“When we reach a midpoint, sometimes we slump, but other times we jump. A mental siren alerts us that we’ve squandered half of our time.”
5. Endings: Marathons, Chocolates, and the Power of Poignancy
“Yet, when endings become salient—whenever we enter an act three of any kind—we sharpen our existential red pencils and scratch out anyone or anything nonessential.”
PART THREE. SYNCHING AND THINKING
6. Synching Fast and Slow: The Secrets of Group Timing
“Synchronizing makes us feel good—and feeling good helps a group’s wheels turn more smoothly. Coordinating with others also makes us do good—and doing good enhances synchronization.”
7. Thinking in Tenses: A Few Final Words
“Most of the world’s languages mark verbs with time using tenses—especially past, present, and future—to convey meaning and reveal thinking. Nearly every phrase we utter is tinged with time.”
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Notes
Praise for Daniel H. Pink
Copyright Page
Index
INTRODUCTION: CAPTAIN TURNER’S DECISION
Half past noon on Saturday, May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner pulled away from Pier 54 on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River and set off for Liverpool, England. Some of the 1,959 passengers and crew aboard the enormous British ship no doubt felt a bit queasy—though less from the tides than from the times.
Great Britain was at war with Germany, World War I having broken out the previous summer. Germany had recently declared the waters adjacent to the British Isles, through which this ship had to pass, a war zone. In the weeks before the scheduled departure, the German embassy in the United States even placed ads in American newspapers warning prospective passengers that those who entered those waters “on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.”1
Yet only a few passengers canceled their trips. After all, this liner had made more than two hundred transatlantic crossings without incident. It was one of the largest and fastest passenger ships in the world, equipped with a wireless telegraph and well stocked with lifeboats (thanks in part to lessons from the Titanic, which had gone down three years earlier). And, perhaps most important, in charge of the ship was Captain William Thomas Turner, one of the most seasoned seamen in the industry—a gruff fifty-eight-year-old with a career full of accolades and “the physique of a bank safe.”2
The ship traversed the Atlantic Ocean for five uneventful days. But on May 6, as the hulking vessel pushed toward the coast of Ireland, Turner received word that German submarines, or U-boats, were roaming the area. He soon left the captain’s deck and stationed himself on the bridge in order to scan the horizon and be ready to make swift decisions.
On Friday morning, May 7, with the liner now just one hundred miles from the coast, a thick fog settled in, so Turner reduced the ship’s speed from twenty-one knots to fifteen knots. By noon, though, the fog had lifted, and Turner could spy the shoreline in the distance. The skies were clear. The seas were calm.
However, at 1 p.m., unbeknownst to captain or crew, German U-boat commander Walther Schwieger spotted the ship. And in the next hour, Turner made two inexplicable decisions. First, he increased the ship’s speed a bit to eighteen knots but not to its maximum speed of twenty-one knots, even though his visibility was sound, the waters were steady, and he knew submarines might be lurking. During the voyage, he had assured passengers that he would run the ship fast because at its top speed this ocean liner could easily outrace any submarine. Second, at around 1:45 p.m., in order to calculate his position, Turner executed what’s called a “four-point bearing,” a maneuver that took forty minutes, rather than carry out a simpler bearing maneuver that would have taken only five minutes. And because of the four-point bearing, Turner had to pilot the ship in a straight line rather than steer a zigzag course, which was the best way to dodge U-boats and elude their torpedoes.