Daniel Pink Shares the Secrets of Perfect Timing
We all know creativity and innovation are highly coveted in business today. The quest to find the most creative minds is ongoing. Perhaps, however, that thinking is shortsighted. Maybe the key to unlocking our creativity is putting ourselves in the right environment, and more importantly, timing our creative endeavors correctly.
In this interview, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Daniel Pink discusses how to use our understanding of cognitive ability throughout the day to optimize our performance including when to conduct creative work, strategies for presenting ideas to leadership, how to schedule administrative tasks, and when to tackle complex problems. Finally, Daniel explains how to implement optimal timing in our personal lives.
Over the course of his career, Daniel Pink has written six bestselling books including Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, To Sell Is Human, A Whole New Mind, and most recently, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. Daniel lives in Washington, D.C. where he continues to write about business and human behavior.
Topics Discussed In Part One: The science of human performance, peak, trough and rebound, how to make better decisions, when to schedule important meetings or procedures, when to schedule legal proceedings, the best time for performance reviews and proposals, and how age affects cognitive function.
Topics Discussed In Part Two: The phases of cognitive ability throughout the day, the inspiration paradox, Larks versus Owls, scheduling yourself for a competitive edge, the habits of famous creatives, how life-stage affects creativity, and ideas for sparking creativity.
People, Organizations, and Resources Mentioned: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Ernest Hemingway, Jerry Seinfeld, Harvard University, Francesca Gino, Adam Benforado, Drexel University, Jonathan Levav (see judicial study), Stanford University, American Idol, University of Chicago, WIRED, David Galenson, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Robert Frost, Piet Mondrian.
You can find out more about Daniel Pink on his website, www.danpink.com. Twitter @DanielPink and on Facebook at Daniel H. Pink.
You can see a complete list of Daniel’s books here.
“Our cognitive abilities do not remain static over the course of the day. They change...we should be doing our analytical work during our peak, whenever that is, our administrative work during the trough, and our insight work during the recovery period.”
-Daniel Pink on the three stages of our work day and how to optimize our schedule.