When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

Let your results do the talking.

So, at the outset, concentrate on accomplishing a few meaningful achievements, and once you’ve gained status by demonstrating excellence, feel free to be more assertive.

Stockpile your motivation.

Motivation comes in spurts—which is why Stanford psychologist B. J. Fogg recommends taking advantage of “motivation waves” so you can weather “motivation troughs.”

Sustain your morale with small wins.

Wins needn’t be large to be meaningful. When you enter a new role, set up small “high-probability” targets and celebrate when you hit them. They’ll give you the motivation and energy to take on more daunting challenges further down the highway.

Wait until you’re old enough (but not too old). It’s probably no surprise that people who marry when they’re very young are more likely to divorce. For instance, an American who weds at twenty-five is 11 percent less likely to divorce than one who marries at age twenty-four, according to an analysis by University of Utah sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger. But waiting too long has a downside. Past the age of about thirty-two—even after controlling for religion, education, geographic location, and other factors—the odds of divorce increase by 5 percent per year for at least the next decade.17

Wait until you’ve completed your education. Couples tend to be more satisfied with their marriages, and less likely to divorce, if they have more education before the wedding.

Wait until your relationship matures. Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo Mialon at Emory University found that couples that dated for at least one year before marriage were 20 percent less likely to divorce than those who made the move more quickly.19 Couples that had dated for more than three years were even less likely to split up once they exchanged vows.

Sometimes hitting the midpoint—of a project, a semester, a life—numbs our interest and stalls our progress. Other times, middles stir and stimulate; reaching the midpoint awakens our motivation and propels us onto a more promising path. I call these two effects the “slump” and the “spark.”

Happiness climbs high early in adulthood but begins to slide downward in the late thirties and early forties, dipping to a low in the fifties.6 (Blanchflower and Oswald found that “subjective well-being among American males bottoms out at an estimated 52.9 years.”7) But we recover quickly from this slump, and well-being later in life often exceeds that of our younger years.

However, another explanation is also plausible. In 2012, five scientists asked zookeepers and animal researchers in three countries to help them better understand the more than 500 great apes under their collective care. These primates—chimpanzees and orangutans—ranged from infants to older adults. The researchers wanted to know how they were doing. So they asked the human personnel to rate the apes’ mood and well-being. (Don’t laugh. The researchers explain that the questionnaire they used “is a well-established method for assessing positive affect in captive primates.”) Then they matched those happiness ratings to the ages of the great apes. The resulting chart is shown here.9

That raises an intriguing possibility: Could the midpoint slump be more biology than sociology, less a malleable reaction to circumstance than an immutable force of nature?

Over the course of Hanukkah, the researchers conclude, “adherence to standards followed a U-shaped pattern.”

They found that the U-shaped pattern became more pronounced for the most religious participants. They were even more likely than others to light the candles on nights 1 and 8. But in the middle of Hanukkah, “their behavior was almost undistinguishable from that of less religious participants.”

In the middle, we relax our standards, perhaps because others relax their assessments of us.

If we’re aware that our standards are likely to sink at the midpoint, that knowledge can help us temper the consequences. Even if we can’t hold off biology and nature, we can prepare for their ramifications.

The Eldredge-Gould theory was itself a form of punctuated equilibrium—a massive conceptual explosion that interrupted a previously sleepy stretch in evolutionary biology and redirected the field down an alternative path.

A decade later, a scholar named Connie Gersick was beginning to study another organism (human beings) in its natural habitat (conference rooms). She tracked small groups of people working on projects—a task force at a bank developing a new type of account, hospital administrators planning a one-day retreat, university faculty and administrators designing a new institute for computer science—from their very first meeting to the moment they reached their final deadline. Management thinkers believed that teams working on projects moved gradually through a series of stages—and Gersick believed that by videotaping all the meetings and transcribing every word people uttered she could understand these consistent team processes in a more granular way.

However, she wrote, what remained the same, even when everything else was diverging, was “the timing of when groups formed, maintained, and changed.”13

Each group first went through a phase of prolonged inertia. The teammates got to know one another, but they didn’t accomplish much. They talked about ideas but didn’t move forward. The clock ticked. The days passed. Then came a sudden transition. “In a concentrated burst of changes, groups dropped old patterns, reengaged with outside supervisors, adopted new perspectives on their work, and made dramatic progress,” Gersick found. After the initial inert phase, they entered a new heads-down, locked-in phase that executed the plan and hurtled toward the deadline. But even more interesting than the burst itself was when it arrived. No matter how much time the various teams were allotted, “each group experienced its transition at the same point in its calendar—precisely halfway between its first meeting and its official deadline.”

“As each group approached the midpoint between the time it started work and its deadline, it underwent great change,” Gersick wrote. Groups didn’t march toward their goals at a steady, even pace. Instead, they spent considerable time accomplishing almost nothing—until they experienced a surge of activity that always came at “the temporal midpoint” of a project.14

Call it the “uh-oh effect.” 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. That injects a healthy dose of stress—Uh-oh, we’re running out of time!—that revives our motivation and reshapes our strategy.

Midpoints, as we’re seeing, can have a dual effect. In some cases, they dissipate our motivation; in other cases, they activate it. Sometimes they elicit an “oh, no” and we retreat; other times, they trigger an “uh-oh” and we advance. Under certain conditions, they bring the slump; under others, they deliver the spark.

Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania and Devin Pope of the University of Chicago analyzed more than 18,000 National Basketball Association games over fifteen years, paying special attention to the games’ scores at halftime. It’s not surprising that teams ahead at halftime won more games than teams that were behind. For example, a six-point halftime lead gives a team about an 80 percent probability of winning the game. However, Berger and Pope detected an exception to the rule: Teams that were behind by just one point were more likely to win. Indeed, being down by one at halftime was more advantageous than being up by one. Home teams with a one-point deficit at halftime won more than 58 percent of the time. Indeed, trailing by one point at halftime, weirdly, was equivalent to being ahead by two points.20 Berger and Pope then looked at ten years’ worth of NCAA matchups, nearly 46,000 games in all, and found the same, though somewhat smaller, effect. “Being slightly behind [at halftime] significantly increases a team’s chance of winning,” they write. And when they examined the scoring patterns in greater detail, they found that the trailing teams scored a disproportionate number of their points immediately after the halftime break. They came out strong at the start of the second half. Truckloads of sports data can reveal correlations, but they don’t tell us anything definitive about causes. So Berger and Pope conducted some simple experiments to identify the mechani...

Midpoints are both a fact of life and a force of nature, but that doesn’t make their effects inexorable. The best hope for turning a slump into a spark involves three steps. First, be aware of midpoints. Don’t let them remain invisible. Second, use them to wake up rather than roll over—to utter an anxious “uh-oh” rather than a resigned “oh, no.” Third, at the midpoint, imagine that you’re behind—but only by a little. That will spark your motivation and maybe help you win a national championship.

If you’ve reached the midpoint of a project or assignment, and the uh-oh effect hasn’t kicked in, here are some straightforward, proven ways to dig yourself out of the slump:

Set interim goals. To maintain motivation, and perhaps reignite it, break large projects into smaller steps.

Publicly commit to those interim goals. Once you’ve set your subgoals, enlist the power of public commitment. We’re far more likely to stick to a goal if we have someone holding us accountable.

Stop your sentence midway through. Ernest Hemingway published fifteen books during his lifetime, and one of his favorite productivity techniques was one I’ve used myself (even to write this book). He often ended a writing session not at the end of a section or paragraph but smack in the middle of a sentence. That sense of incompletion lit a midpoint spark that helped him begin the following day with immediate momentum. One reason the Hemingway technique works is something called the Zeigarnik effect, our tendency to remember unfinished tasks better than finished ones.2

Don’t break the chain (the Seinfeld technique).

Jerry Seinfeld makes a habit of writing every day. Not just the days when he feels inspired—every single damn day. To maintain focus, he prints a calendar with all 365 days of the year. He marks off each day he writes with a big red X. “After a few days, you’ll have a chain,” he told software developer Brad Isaac. “Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

Picture one person your work will help.

In the 1960s and 1970s, organizational psychologist Bruce Tuckman developed an influential theory of how groups move through time. Tuckman believed that all teams proceeded through four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Phase 1: Form and Storm. When teams first come together, they often enjoy a period of maximal harmony and minimal conflict. Use those early moments to develop a shared vision, establish group values, and generate ideas. Eventually, though, conflict will break through the sunny skies. (That’s Tuckman’s “storm.”) Some personalities may attempt to exert their influence and stifle quieter voices. Some people may contest their responsibilities and roles. As time passes, make sure all participants have a voice, that expectations are clear, and that all members can contribute.

Phase Two: The Midpoint. For all the Sturm und Drang of phase one, your team probably hasn’t accomplished much yet. That was Gersick’s key insight. So use the midpoint—and the uh-oh effect it brings—to set direction and accelerate the pace. The University of Chicago’s Ayelet Fishbach, whose work on Hanukkah candles I described earlier, has found that when team commitment to achieving a goal is high, it’s best to emphasize the work that remains. But when team commitment is low, it’s wiser to emphasize progress that has already been made even if it’s not massive.5 Figure out your own team’s commitment and move accordingly. As you set the path, remember that teams generally become less open to new ideas and solutions after the midpoint.6 However, they are also the most open to coaching.7 So channel your inner Dean Smith, explain that you’re a little behind, and galvanize action.

Phase Three: Perform.

At this point, team members are motivated, confident about achieving the goal, and generally able to work together with minimal friction. Keep the progress going but be wary of regressing back to the “storm” stage.

To maintain optimal performance, ask your colleagues to step back, respect one another’s roles, and reemphasize the shared vision they are moving toward. Be willing to shift tactics, but in this stage, direct your focus squarely on execution.

Author and University of Houston professor Brené Brown offers a wonderful definition of “midlife.” She says it’s the period “when the Universe grabs your shoulders and tells you ‘I’m not f—ing around, use the gifts you were given.’”

Prioritize your top goals (the Buffett technique). As billionaires go, Warren Buffett seems like a pretty good guy. He’s pledged his multibillion-dollar fortune to charity. He maintains a modest lifestyle. And he continues to work hard well into his eighties. But the Oracle of Omaha also turns out to be oracular in dealing with the midlife slump. As legend has it, one day Buffett was talking with his private pilot, who was frustrated that he hadn’t achieved all he’d hoped. Buffett prescribed a three-step remedy. First, he said, write down your top twenty-five goals for the rest of your life. Second, look at the list and circle your top five goals, those that are unquestionably your highest priority. That will give you two lists—one with your top five goals, the other with the next twenty. Third, immediately start planning how to achieve those top five goals. And the other twenty? Get rid of them. Avoid them at all costs. Don’t even look at them until you’ve achieved the top five, which might take a long time. Doing a few important things well is far more likely to propel you out of the slump than a dozen half-assed and half-finished projects are.

Develop midcareer mentoring within your organization.

He suggests providing formal, specific mentorship for employees throughout their career.8 This has two benefits. First, it recognizes that the U-shaped curve of well-being is something most of us encounter. Talking openly about the slump can help us realize that it’s fine to experience some midcareer ennui. Second, more experienced employees can offer strategies for dealing with the slump. And peers can offer guidance to one another. What have people done to reinject purpose into their work? How have they built meaningful relationships in the office and beyond?

Mentally subtract positive events.

In the mathematics of midlife, sometimes subtraction is more powerful than addition. In 2008 four social psychologists borrowed from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life to suggest a novel technique based on that idea.9 Begin by thinking about something positive in your life—the birth of a child, your marriage, a spectacular career achievement. Then list all the circumstances that made it possible—perhaps a seemingly insignificant decision of where to eat dinner one night or a class you decided to enroll in on a whim or the friend of a friend of a friend who happened to tell you about a job opening. Next, write down all the events, circumstances, and decisions that might never have happened. What if you didn’t go to that party or chose another class or skipped coffee with your cousin? Imagine your life without that chain of events and, more important, without that huge positive in your life. Now return to the present and remind yourself that l...

Write yourself a few paragraphs of self-compassion. We’re often more compassionate toward others than we are toward ourselves. But the science of what’s called “self-compassion” is showing that this bias can harm our well-being and undermine resilience.10 That’s why people who research this topic increasingly recommend practices like the following. Start by identifying something about yourself that fills you with regret, shame, or disappointment. (Maybe you were fired from a job, flunked a class, undermined a relationship, ruined your finances.) Then write down some specifics about how it makes you feel. Then, in two paragraphs, write yourself an e-mail expressing compassion or understanding for this element of your life. Imagine what someone who cares about you might say. He would likely be more forgiving than you. Indeed, University of Texas professor Kristin Neff suggests you write your letter “from the perspective of an unconditionally loving imaginary friend.” But mix understand...

Wait. Sometimes the best course of action is . . . inaction. Yes, that can feel agonizing, but no move can often be the right move. Slumps ar...

At the beginning of a pursuit, we’re generally more motivated by how far we’ve progressed; at the end, we’re generally more energized by trying to close the small gap that remains.

The motivating power of endings is one reason that deadlines are often, though not always, effective.

Likewise, in other studies, people given a hard deadline—a date and time—are more likely to sign up to be organ donors than those for whom the choice is open-ended.9 People with a gift certificate valid for two weeks are three times more likely to redeem it than people with the same gift certificate valid for two months.10 Negotiators with a deadline are far more likely to reach an agreement than those without a deadline—and that agreement comes disproportionately at the very end of the allotted time.11 Think of this phenomenon as a first cousin of the fresh start effect—the fast finish effect. When we near the end, we kick a little harder.