When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

STARTING TOGETHER

“Graduating from college in a bad economy has a long-run, negative impact on wages,”

Those who began their careers during a recession do become CEOs—but they become CEOs of smaller firms and earn less money than their counterparts who graduated during boom years. Recession graduates, the research found, also have more conservative management styles, perhaps another legacy of less certain beginnings.30

For many years, teaching hospitals in the United States confronted what was known as the “July effect.”

The only downside of this approach is that patients often suffered from this on-the-job training—and July was the cruelest month. (In the UK, the month is later and the language more vivid. British physicians call the period when new doctors begin their jobs the “August killing season.”) For example, one study of more than twenty-five years of U.S. death certificates found that “in counties containing teaching hospitals, fatal medication errors spiked by 10% in July and in no other month.

However, in the last decade, teaching hospitals have worked to correct this.

we should recognize that having a lot of people earning too little or struggling to make their way affects all of us—in the form of fewer customers for what we’re selling and higher taxes to deal with the consequences of limited opportunities. One solution might be for governments and universities to institute a student-loan-forgiveness program keyed to the unemployment rate. If the unemployment rate topped, say, 7.5 percent, some portion of a newly graduating student’s loan would be forgiven. Or perhaps if the unemployment rate ticked above a certain mark, university or federal funds would be unlocked to pay for career counselors to help new graduates trek their way across the newly rocky terrain—in much the same way the federal government deploys sandbags and the Army Corps of Engineers to regions beset by floods.

Shifting our focus—and giving when the same weight as what—won’t cure all our ills. But it’s a good beginning.

AVOID A FALSE START WITH A PREMORTEM

Before the project begins, convene for a premortem. “Assume it’s eighteen months from now and our project is a complete disaster,” you say to your team. “What went wrong?”

EIGHTY-SIX DAYS IN THE YEAR WHEN YOU CAN MAKE A FRESH START

The first day of the month (twelve) Mondays (fifty-two) The first day of spring, summer, fall, and winter (four) Your country’s Independence Day or the equivalent (one) The day of an important religious holiday—for example, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr (one) Your birthday (one) A loved one’s birthday (one) The first day of school or the first day of a semester (two) The first day of a new job (one) The day after graduation (one) The first day back from vacation (two) The anniversary of your wedding, first date, or divorce (three) The anniversary of the day you started your job, the day you became a citizen, the day you adopted your dog or cat, the day you graduated from school or university (four) The day you finish this book (one)

WHEN SHOULD YOU GO FIRST?

when you compete can be just as important as what you do.

Four Situations When You Should Go First

If you’re on a ballot

If you’re not the default choice—for

If there are relatively few competitors (say, five or fewer),

If you’re interviewing for a job and you’re up against several strong candidates, you might gain an edge from being first.

Four Situations When You Should Not Go First

If you are the default choice, don’t go first.

If there are many competitors (not necessarily strong ones, just a large number of them), going later can confer a small advantage and going last can confer a huge one.

If you’re operating in an uncertain environment, not being first can work to your benefit.

If the competition is meager, going toward the end can give you an edge by highlighting your differences. “If it was a weak day with many bad candidates, it’s a really good idea to go last,” says Simonsohn.9

FOUR TIPS FOR MAKING A FAST START IN A NEW JOB

Begin before you begin.

visualize yourself “transforming” into your new role.

Let your results do the talking.

Stockpile your motivation.

taking advantage of “motivation waves” so you can weather “motivation troughs.”14

Sustain your morale with small wins.

WHEN SHOULD YOU GET MARRIED?

Wait until you’re old enough (but not too old).

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.

Wait until your relationship matures.

Couples that had dated for more than three years were even less likely to split up once they exchanged vows.

MIDPOINTS

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.

Well-being in midlife didn’t collapse in a cataclysmic, life-altering way. It just sagged.

“The U-shape is similar for males and females, and for each side of the Atlantic Ocean.”

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.

LIGHTING CANDLES AND CUTTING CORNERS

If the midlife droop is inevitable, just knowing that eases some of the pain, as does knowing that the state is not permanent. If we’re aware that our standards are likely to sink at the midpoint, that knowledge can help us temper the consequences.

THE UH-OH EFFECT

A decade later, a scholar named Connie Gersick was beginning to study another organism (human beings) in its natural habitat (conference rooms).

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.”

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.

HALFTIME SHOW