Daniel Pink and Harnessing the Power of When

Connect with Daniel Pink
Twitter: @danielpink | Website: www.danpink.com | Book: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

Links & Show Notes

• Daniel Pink Intro (00:46)
  ..* Drive (01:19) - Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose
• Prime your brain (2:50)
  ..* “Timing isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing.” - Miles Davis (3:50) Biological clocks in every cell of our body
• Time of day & standardized testing - Denmark study (5:21)
• School start time for high schoolers (6:21)
  ..* Chronobiology / Chronotypes
  ..* American Academy of Pediatrics Report (don’t start school before 8:30)
  ..* Teen depression, teen obesity, lower test scores, more car accidents
  ..* Adults saying ‘don’t be lazy’ - remember how detrimental that can be from our discussion with Glenn Whitman!
  ..* We don’t take timing seriously (8:43)
• Phases of the day based on chronotype (9:53)
  ..* 15% are larks
  ..* 20% are owls
  ..* The rest of us are ‘third birds’
  ..* Pattern of the day (Twitter, Daniel Kahneman)
  ..* Peak → Trough → Recovery
• “Our cognitive abilities don’t stay the same throughout the day.” (11:20)
  ..* Peak: Analytic work - most vigilant at this time
  ..* Trough: increase in medical errors, decrease in handwashing in hospitals, more car accidents: Administrative work - not a lot of brainpower
  ..* Recovery: High mood but less vigilant - time for Creative Work
• Scheduling (14:45) - Not just a logistical issue, it’s a pedagogical issue and a strategic issue
  ..* Only criterion we use is availability (rooms & people) when we schedule anything - we should give more weight to the ‘when’
  ..* Time of day alone represents about 20% of variance in how someone performs on the job (15:50)
  ..* We’re intentional about the ‘what’ - the curriculum, the ‘who’ - who’s in the room, the ‘how’ - the pedagogy, but the ‘when’ takes a back seat, which is a big mistake.
  ..* Study of 2 million students in LAUSD - student performance in math in the morning vs. math in the afternoon
  ..* Corporate earnings calls - NYU study (19:07) - even led to temporary stock mispricing
  ..* Communicate important messages earlier in the day
• Taking breaks (22:02)
  ..* Breaks are undervalued
  ..* Something is better than nothing - even if 1 to 2 minutes, better than nothing; breaks should be social, even for introverts; moving is better than stationary; outside is better than inside; fully detached is better than semi-detached
  ..* We look at recess as a concession - recess is part of what we need to learn!
  ..* Denmark - 20 to 30 min break before those standardized tests, scores went back up
• Temporal Landmarks (24:48) - trigger an interesting form of mental accounting
  ..* Try using fresh start dates or temporal landmarks for when you want students to try something new
• Suggestions for School: (27:20)
  ..* More breaks for teachers and students alike, analytical classes (literacy & numeracy) in the morning, move art / music to later in the day, pay more attention to how well things are working and adjust accordingly - test and reiterate
  ..* Increase our chances of being successful; not guarantees
• Premortems - Gary Klein (30:53)
  ..* Make mistakes in your head and come up with solutions before you make those mistakes, e.g. ask students: AP test is in 6 months, you get a 1, what went wrong?
• Group Synchronization (34:46) Oxford research on prosocial effects of synchronous play with children (boosts our mood, increased collaboration, more open to playing with kids who don’t look like them, open minded, generous, etc.)
• Motivation (37:57)
  ..* Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose - Genius Hour & self-directed projects, student-led conferences, solve problems in their local community
• Homework from Daniel Pink (40:56)
  ..* Be a better observer of your own behavior - how are you doing at different times of day? Observe and act accordingly
  ..* Beginnings, middles & ends - importance of the end of the year
• Danpink.com / danielpink.com / email newsletter
• Takeaways (43:52)
  ..* Quiz on Daniel’s website to learn your own chronotype
  ..* Make the end of year powerful!