When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

Chen found that speakers of weak-future languages—those that did not mark explicit differences between present and future—were 30 percent more likely to save for retirement and 24 percent less likely to smoke. They also practiced safer sex, exercised more regularly, and were both healthier and wealthier in retirement. This was true even within countries such as Switzerland, where some citizens spoke a weak-future language (German) and others a strong-future one (French).14

“By recording ordinary moments today, one can make the present a ‘present’ for the future,” the researchers write.