The Wall Street Journal’s 2018 book review of WHEN: THE SCIENTIFIC SECRETS OF PERFECT TIMING, authored by Daniel H. Pink, reveals fascinating statistics ranging from medicine to economics. Reviewed by Emily Bobrow, the book gives us all sorts of data on science. Pink, a behavioral scientist authority, tells us “We complain of wasting time far more than we gloat about filling it wisely. Yet it is increasingly possible to correct for timing problems in advance.”
Based on the author’s research, here are some cautionary statistics gleaned on the subject of TIMING: All medical interactions do much better in the morning hours. Indeed, hospital surgery patients are advised that an afternoon procedure has greater odds of dying within 48 hours of the operation than in the morning. In the afternoon, gastroenterologists, performing colonoscopies, are more likely to be less cautious in detecting cancerous tumors than in the a.m. hours. Likewise, internists are 26% more apt to give their patients unnecessary antibiotics, and almost all medical workers are 10% less likely to wash their hands, than in the morning. Pink also cautions us to try to avoid teaching hospitals in July, at all hours, when new medical graduates, fresh out of studies, are beginning their careers and fatalities spike in these hospitals.
Other scheduling tips offered up by the book include the following: Exercise workouts, for those who hope to lose weight, boost mood (through good blood flow and increase in serotonin hormones), and build strength are best done in the morning hours. However, Pink hastens to add, “But those who are keen on performing at their physical peak should postpone their big sweat to the afternoon when their reaction time quickens, their heart rate drops, and their muscles are good and warm.” To strengthen this opinion, our author states “A disproportionate number of Olympic records are set in the late afternoon or early evening.”
Are you aware that our daily moods also fluctuate greatly? They begin hopeful, then slump in the afternoon, and recover in the evening hours. Analytical thinking (our cognitive abilities as recorded in my first paragraph above) when the brain is most mentally alert, should be done in the morning hours. A drop in mental alertness can occur in mid-afternoon, but is picked up with enthusiasm for the creative arts in late afternoon.
Pink explains that “work that requires innovation and creativity is often best left to later in the day, when our less-inhibited, less-vigilant brains become more open to unexpected insights and sudden flashes of brilliance.”
Let’s begin to take the issues of WHEN much more seriously than WHAT. Believe, as the author does, “that our thoughts and actions are really so vulnerable to the TIME of the day.”
In preparing for our future daily lives, let’s try to be more successful!
