University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Take Advantage of Timing for Peak Performance
Podcast

Take Advantage of Timing for Peak Performance

On Leadership with Scott Miller Podcast

Scott Miller and Daniel H. Pink
Franklin Covey Company, 2018
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8

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  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples
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Recommendation

Are you highly productive in the morning? Do you often experience a mid-afternoon slump? These energy peaks and valleys reflect the science of timing, best-selling author Daniel Pink explains in this episode of Scott Miller’s On Leadership podcast. In an engaging conversation about his book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Pink explains how to take better decisions and get more done by aligning your daily tasks with your biological clock.

Summary

Most people’s cognitive abilities cycle through three predictable daily stages: peak, trough and recovery.

In his book, When, Daniel Pink unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing. Pink reveals people’s cognitive abilities fluctuate over the course of the day. Most people move through three cognitive stages in a predictable order: peak, trough and recovery. About two-thirds of the population are at their peak during the morning. Exceptions are evening types (night owls), who often cycle through the three stages in reverse order and peak much later in the day, and early risers (larks), who tend to hit their peak earlier than most of the population. Night owls make up about 20% of the population and larks about 15%.

During your peak, you’re best at pursuing analytical tasks that require a high level of focus. Most people hit a slump in the early to mid-afternoon – the trough stage – during which their cognitive abilities decline, and they are most prone to error and bias. The recovery phase, which usually arrives in the later afternoon...

About the Podcast

Scott Miller is the author of four books, including the best-seller Everyone Deserves A Great Manager; he’s the popular podcast host of On Leadership with Scott Miller and C-Suite Conversations with Scott Miller. Daniel Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including When, A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell Is Human and his latest, The Power of Regret.

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