When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

by Daniel H. Pink

DRM research, for instance, has shown that during any given day people typically are least happy while commuting and most happy while canoodling.6

Hell, yeah!!

inserting regular mandatory vigilance breaks into tasks helps us regain the focus needed to proceed with challenging work that must be done in the afternoon.

Short breaks from a task can prevent habituation, help us maintain focus, and reactivate our commitment to a goal.17 And frequent short breaks are more effective than occasional ones.

Naps, research shows, confer two key benefits: They improve cognitive performance and they boost mental and physical health.

The ideal naps—those that combine effectiveness with efficiency—are far shorter, usually between ten and twenty minutes.

As for me, after a few months of experimenting with twenty-minute afternoon naps, I’ve converted. I’ve gone from nap detractor to nap devotee, from someone ashamed to nap to someone who relishes the coffee-then-nap combination known as the “nappuccino.”

Goals

Vigilance breaks prevent deadly mistakes. Restorative breaks enhance performance. Lunches and naps help us elude the trough and get more and better work done in the afternoon.

The best scientists often start small and think big.

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

EKekekekekekk

What the end of the decade does seem to trigger, for good and for ill, is a reenergized pursuit of significance.

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.7

Given a choice, human beings prefer endings that elevate.

Belongingness, they found, profoundly shapes our thoughts and emotions. Its absence leads to ill effects, its presence to health and satisfaction.8

Touch is another bolster for belongingness.

The benefits of thinking fondly about the past are vast because nostalgia delivers two ingredients essential to well-being: a sense of meaning and a connection to others.

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

Taken together, all of these studies suggest that the path to a life of meaning and significance isn’t to “live in the present” as so many spiritual gurus have advised. It is to integrate our perspectives on time into a coherent whole, one that helps us comprehend who we are and why we’re here.