When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

Divorce filings spiked in the months of March and August, a pattern that they later found in four other states and that gave rise to a chart, shown below, that resembles the Bat-Signal.5

FOUR AREAS WHERE YOU CAN CREATE BETTER ENDINGS

The workday

the science of endings suggests that instead of fleeing we’re better off reserving the final five minutes of work for a few small deliberate actions that bring the day to a fulfilling close. Begin by taking two or three minutes to write down what you accomplished since the morning. Making progress is the single largest day-to-day motivator on the job.7 But without tracking our “dones,” we often don’t know whether we’re progressing. Ending the day by recording what you’ve achieved can encode the entire day more positively.

Now use the other two or three minutes to lay out your plan for the following day.

Bonus: If you’ve got an extra minute left, send someone—anyone—a thank-you e-mail. I mentioned in chapter 2 that gratitude is a powerful restorative. It’s an equally powerful form of elevation.

A vacation

As you plan your next vacation, you needn’t save all the best for last. But you’ll enjoy the vacation more, both in the moment and in retrospect, if you consciously create an elevating final experience.

A purchase

PART THREE. SYNCHING AND THINKING

SYNCHING FAST AND SLOW The Secrets of Group Timing

He’s not alone: About 5,000 dabbawalas work in Mumbai. Each day they deliver more than 200,000 lunches. They do this six times a week nearly every week of the year—with an accuracy that rivals FedEx and UPS.

Mumbai is not just one of the largest cities in the world; it is also one of the most densely populated. The sheer shoulder-to-shoulder humanity of the city itself—12 million citizens crammed into an area one-fifth the size of Rhode Island—gives it a throbbing, anarchic intensity.

Much of what we do—at work, at school, and at home—we do in concert with other people. Our ability to survive, even to live, depends on our capacity to coordinate with others in and across time.

An external standard sets the pace. A sense of belonging helps individuals cohere. And synchronization both requires and heightens well-being. Put another way, groups must synchronize on three levels—to the boss, to the tribe, and to the heart.

THE CHOIRMASTER, THE COXSWAIN, AND THE CLOCK: SYNCHING TO THE BOSS

group timing requires a boss—someone or something above and apart from the group itself to set the pace, maintain the standards, and focus the collective mind.

THE BENEFITS OF BELONGING: SYNCHING TO THE TRIBE

They proposed that “a need to belong is a fundamental human motivation . . . and that much of what human beings do is done in the service of belongingness.”

For group coordination, it comes in three forms: codes, garb, and touch.

Codes

For the dabbawalas, the secret code is painted (or written with a marker) on every lunch bag they handle.

Feelings of belonging boost job satisfaction and performance.

the more cohesive and communicative a team is—the more they chat and gossip—the more they get done.”

Garb

a white Gandhi hat that signifies that he is a dabbawala.

Clothing, operating as a marker of affiliation and identification, enables coordination.

Touch

Touch is another bolster for belongingness.

[T]ouch increases cooperative behavior within groups, which in turn enables better group performance.”

EFFORT AND ECSTASY: SYNCHING TO THE HEART

Synching to the heart is the third principle of group timing.

Exercise is one of the few activities in life that is indisputably good for us—an undertaking that extends enormous benefits but extracts few costs. Exercise helps us live longer. It fends off heart disease and diabetes. It reduces our weight and improves our strength. And its psychological value is enormous. For people suffering from depression, it can be just as effective as medication. For healthy people, it’s an instant and long-lasting mood booster.15 Anyone who examines the science on exercise reaches the same conclusion: People would be silly not to do it.

The research on the benefits of singing in groups is stunning. Choral singing calms heart rates and boosts endorphin levels.16 It improves lung function.17 It increases pain thresholds and reduces the need for pain medication.18 It even alleviates symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.19 Group singing—not just performances but also practices—increases the production of immunoglobulin, making it easier to fight infections.20 In fact, cancer patients who sing in choirs show an improved immune response after just one rehearsal.

SEVEN WAYS TO FIND YOUR OWN “SYNCHER’S HIGH”

Sing in a chorus.

Run together.

http://www.rrca.org/resources/runners/find-a-running-club.

Row crew.

Dance.

Find a class near you at https://www.thumbtack.com/k/ballroom-dance-lessons/near-me/.

Join a yoga class.

Flash mob.

More info at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-tells-flash-mob-place-organize/.

Cook in tandem.

ASK THESE THREE QUESTIONS, THEN KEEP ASKING THEM

Do we have a clear boss—whether

Are we fostering a sense of belonging that enriches individual identity, deepens affiliation, and allows everyone to synchronize to the tribe?

Are we activating the uplift—feeling good and doing good—that is necessary for a group to succeed?

FOUR IMPROV EXERCISES THAT CAN BOOST YOUR GRO...