The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

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Can the time of day.

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Affect how creative you are, whether or not you will get

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a raise when you ask for it.

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If you will get better treatment in a hospital.

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Or score better on tests.

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Well, The research overwhelmingly says yes to all of those things and many more.

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Welcome to episode 78 of this shit works.

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I am your host, Julie Brown.

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And today I am discussing the book when the scientific secrets

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of perfect timing by Daniel pink.

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This episode is sponsored by Nickerson a full service branding,

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marketing PR and communications agency with team members in Boston.

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Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

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Visit them@nickersoncos.com.

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Did you know that there is a two hour window during the day

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that doctors are, more likely to give a fatal dose of anesthesia?

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And that same two hours students are more likely to bomb on standardized tests

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and CEOs are more likely to say something stupid on quarterly earnings calls,

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leading to a plummet in their stock price.

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These two hours is what Daniel pink calls the Bermuda triangle of the day.

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And it is the hours between two and four.

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Why is this?

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You might ask, well, Daniel's research in big data studies show that our

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attention and mental ability is biologically programmed to rise and fall.

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According to our circadian rhythm.

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Based on the idea that we are generally awake for approximately 16 hours per day.

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Our attention and mental ability peaks.

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Troughs and then rebounds at the same time, over the course

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of that 16 hours day after day.

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So let's break this down.

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Our peak time.

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The time when we can best do logical work is the first seven hours of our day.

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So if you generally wake at 6:00 AM, your peak time is between 6:00 AM.

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And 1:00 PM in the afternoon.

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This peak time is when you are using the left side of your brain.

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It's best for doing research scheduling important calls.

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If you're a student, it would be better to schedule your science

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and math classes in the morning.

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When your logical brain is firing on all cylinders.

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The trough time.

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The time when mistakes generally happen is between seven and

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nine hours after you wake.

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So if you wake at six it's between one and three, With 2:55 PM being

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the least productive time of the day of any day, day after day.

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According to studies.

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Daniel says the best thing you can do in this trough time

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is to actually take a nap.

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Studies show that Italian police officers who took naps immediately

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before their afternoon and evening shifts had 48% fewer traffic accidents

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than those who didn't take a nap.

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Now.

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Taking a nap is easy if you live in a country that believes in siesta in the

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afternoon, but that's not so much here in the hustle and grind culture of America.

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So Daniel says, if you can't take a nap, Schedule your least important,

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most mundane work during this time, go for a walk, run your errands, do

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not work on the things that require your logical brain to be at its best.

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Now the rebound time is the last seven hours of your day.

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So in general, between three and 10:00 PM, but notice.

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The beginning of the rebound time is still in the so-called Bermuda

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triangle of the day for one hour

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If you wake up before seven o'clock.

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This is when we are inching back up to better for performance.

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The rebound time is when we are tapping into the right side of our brain,

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the more creative side of our brain.

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So, this is when you should schedule your creative writing graphics,

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brainstorming sessions with other people.

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If you're a student schedule your art design or music classes in

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these hours, as you can more easily tap into your creativity, then.

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Now.

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This is all based on the idea that you have a regular or early

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chronotype, meaning that you are more of a morning person.

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Only 25% of the population are people who have a so-called late chronotype,

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meaning you are slow to get up.

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You have a moderate amount of energy by mid morning and your energy actually

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increases as the day goes on with a big surgeon energy in the evening.

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If that is you.

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Your rebound and your peak are actually opposite.

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Meet work on more insightful creative work in the morning.

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And leave the logical more structured work for nighttime.

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This makes total sense for me.

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I wake around five 30 every day, and I like to crank out a lot of logical

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research-based tasks in the morning.

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But I always crash around one 30 in the afternoon.

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Prior to reading this research, I always equated it with this, you know, this

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crash with, and being sluggish in the afternoon to having just eaten lunch

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and experiencing a slight food coma.

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I had actually started to not schedule too much in the hour and

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a half between one 30 and three.

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Knowing that at three, I would always have a rebound of energy and creativity.

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So this cycle peak.

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Trough.

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Rebound.

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It happens to us every day.

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And if we become more attuned to it, we can begin to structure our days around

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it for better performance and efficiency.

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Oh yeah that thing about the res want to know what the best time to ask for raises

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Daniel says do it sometime after one.

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But before two.

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After one, because if your boss has taken a break and eaten lunch, they are probably

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in a better mood than if they were hangry.

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And this is a little bit of a sweet spot before that 2:00 PM trough kicks in.

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The book is other keynotes.

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Go on to describe so many other things that are tied into timing.

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Like what is the most common age for someone to decide

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to run their first marathon?

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Also what two months of the year have the highest peaks in

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divorce filings and so much more.

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It's not just about your daily timing, but how dates and times affect our behavior.

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I want to thank listener, Megan, for asking me to look into this subject

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and to create an episode around it.

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I found it completely fascinating and insightful.

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I hope it was helpful for you.

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And that you're interested in learning more about his book and his studies.

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I'll put a link to that book and a couple of his keynotes in the

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show notes for you to check out.

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Now.

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Onto the cocktail of the week.

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I looked for a cocktail with a reference to time that I would actually enjoy.

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And I found it in a cocktail called five o'clock tea.

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That seems perfect for the time of the day when we were in our rebound time.

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Here's what you're going to need.

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One and a half ounces of dry gin.

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One ounce of honey syrup.

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I've given this recipe before in previous episodes.

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Half.

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An ounce of lemon juice and two ounces of camomile tea.

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Chilled.

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Pour all the ingredients into a mixing glass and fill that glass

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with ice and stir, and then stream into a chilled martini glass.

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All right friends, that's it.

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I hope you liked today's episode.

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Once again, if you have time, please take a moment to like, and

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review and subscribe and share with your friends until next week.