This is the best time to do anything 4 powerful secrets from research

This is the best time to do anything 4 powerful secrets from researchThis is the best time to do anything 4 powerful secrets from researchWe love to say timing is everything but often we sure as heck dont act like it. (Bookstores have an entire how to section but notlage a when to section.)As were going to find out, timing really can be everything. And often weve got it all wrong. Luckily, bestselling authorDan Pinkhas come to the rescue. His new book isWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect zeiteinteilung.Its loaded with information on the best time to do almostanything- including the best time to get married. (You might wanna tie the knot between 25 and 32.)FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timingan American who weds at twenty-five is 11 percent less likely to divorce than one who marries at age twenty-four, according to analysis by University of Utah sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger. past the age of thirty-two even after controlling for religion, education, geographic loc ation, and other factors the odds of divorceincreaseby 5 percent per year for at least the next decade.And if youre already married, try and be extra nice in March and August - thats when divorce filings consistently shoot up.Ever have to give someone good news and bad news? Dan reports that you should deliver the bad newsbeforethe good news.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingSeveral studies over several decades have found that roughly four out of five people prefer to begin with a loss or negative outcome and ultimately end with a gain or positive outcome, rather than the reverse.Theres no way I could cover all the great insights in the book, so were going to focus on how to use Dans findings to be mora productive and effective during the day.All your hours are not created equal - not by a long shot.Do think-y stuff in the morningAnything requiring you to be at your most rational and analytical should be done early in the day. This is a very robust finding with mou ntains of studies to back it up.Researchers usually just present data - they dont often give explicit recommendations. But the writers of one paper Dan cites found their results so overwhelming they just came right out and told people what to do - make important decisionsearly.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingAn important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day.Maybe youre thinking, Meh. Im sure its not that big a deal if I wait until after lunch. Wrong.You might as well pound a few beers before sitting down to work - thats how big the performance difference can be.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingThe performance change between the daily high point and the daily low point can be equivalent to the effect on performance of drinking the legal limit of alcohol, according to Russell Foster, a neuroscie ntist and chronobiologist at the University of Oxford.And this jives with previous research.Dan Arielyof Duke University found that mornings really are magical for getting stuff doneit turns out that most people are productive in the first two hours of the morning. Not immediately after waking,but if you get upat 7 youll be most productive from around from 8-1030.You know what else Arielys research found? We usually waste most of that golden time with schmelzglas and Facebook. Bad. Mornings are when you want to handle your most important tasks.(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my bestselling bookhere.)So mornings are magic. But whats the latter half of the day good for?Afternoons are sluggish - but insightfulOne study found that 255PM is very likely the mostun-productive moment of your day.Researchers refer to mornings as the peak and afternoons as the trough. Youre probably thinking about how that negatively impacts your work.Well, dont just yetThink about how it affectsotherpeoples work. I, for one, am never going to a doctors office in the afternoon for the rest of my life.Anesthesiologists commit three times as many errors that result in patient harm during the latter half of the day. (Errors by a surgeon are pretty scary. Errors where somebody puts you to sleep and you never wake up areterrifying.)The number of studies that show just how much stupider and less in control we are during the afternoon is staggering.The No. 1 time for sleep-relatedcar accidents is, unsurprisingly, late at night when people are exhausted. Guess when No. 2 is? Not rush hour or morning commute when the most cars are on the road - its between 2PM and 4PM. All around the world.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingIn the United Kingdom, sleep-related vehicle accidents peak twice during every twenty-four-hour period. One is between 2AM and 6AM, the middle of the night. The other is between 2PM and 4PM, the middle of the afternoon. Researc hers have found the saatkorn pattern of traffic accidents in the U.S., Israel, Finland, France, and other countries.After the morning ends, were a bit of mess. But there is an upsideWhen your brain is tired, creativity jumps. Those misfiring neurons arent as rational but theyre much more likely to come up with new ideas.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingSome have called this phenomenon the inspiration paradox the idea that innovation and creativity are greatest when we are not at our best, at least with respect to our circadian rhythms.So you might want to come up with new plans in the afternoon - and execute them the next morning.(To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, clickhere.)I know theres a group of people right now who are vigorously shaking their heads at all of the above I amnotsharper in the morning Im a zombie. Its takes four hours before my brain even departures working.Im not talking about the sleep-deprived (theyre a m ess all day long.) Im talking about night owls. And guess what? Theyre right.Strike that - reverse itIf youre a night owl, take everything I just said and reverse it.(Night owls who only read the very beginning of this post received somereallybad advice. I feel no guilt. Thats what you get for not reading to the end. Nyah.)Larks (early risers) and third birds (people who are neither extreme) peak in the morning, have a trough in the afternoon and then experience a period of recovery.For night owls, itsrecovery, trough, peak.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingIn short, all of us experience the day in three stages a peak, a trough, and a recovery. And about three-quarters of us (larks and third birds) experience it in that order. But about one in four people, those whose genes or age make them night owls, experience the day in something closer to the reverse order recovery, trough, peak.And sure enough, night owls get into more car accidents during their morning commu te.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingEven though its obviously more dangerous to drive at night, owls actually drive worse early in the day because mornings are out of synch with their natural cycle of vigilance and alertness.If youre a child of the night, plan creative tasks for the morning and critical thinking for the afternoon. And dont drive anywhere near where Im at until 2PM.(To learn how to stop being lazy and get more done, clickhere.)While very interesting, all this information can also be upsetting. If you have little control over your schedule, youre going to be doing a lot of stuff at suboptimal times. And if your job doesnt involve much creativity, is half the day just wasted?How do we turn that trough into more of a peak? The answer is simple take breaks. But whats really interesting is there is more than one schrift of break that we need.The two types of breaksYoure a night owl and youve got a big presentation at 9AM. Or youre a lark and its scheduled for 255PM, the Productivity Minute of Doom. This is when you need what Dan calls a vigilance break.Vigilance breaks arebrief pauses before high-stakes encounters to review instructions and guard against error.Stop what youre doing. Dont just barrel forward with your brain feeling like mush. Take a moment to review everything that needs to be done and how you need to do it. A checklist made during your peak hours can really help here.One year after the Veterans Hospital Administration implemented vigilance breaks for doctors they found that thesurgical mortality rate had dropped by 18%.Now if vigilance breaks are great for marshaling your defenses against errors, restorative breaks are what you need to recharge and improve performance.Instead of reviewing a checklist, you want to get some distance from your work and relax a bit.Students that take standardized tests during their trough perform worse than those who take them during their peak. But when allowed restorative breaks, the a fternoon group actually gotbetterscores than the morning students.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingDanish schoolchildren who take the tests in the afternoon score significantly worse than those who take the exams earlier in the day When the Danish students had a twenty-to-thirty-minute break to eat, play, and chat before a test, their scores did not decline. In fact, they increased.Whats the best restorative break? Combining the insights from many studies, Dan recommendsa short walk outside with a friend during which you discuss something other than work. And another study showed that the highest performers usually worked for 52 minutes and then took a 17 minute break.I know, I know it might not be realistic for everyone. In that case you want to make sure to maximize the break that is built into everyones schedule - lunch. It can be a big performance booster if done correctly.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingThe most powerful lunch breaks have two k ey ingredients autonomy and detachment. Autonomy exercising some control over what you do, how you do it, when you do it, and whom you do it with- is critical for high performance, especially on complex tasks Detachment both psychological and physical- is also critical. Staying focused on work during lunch, or even using ones phone for social media, can intensify fatigue according to multiple studies, but shifting ones focus away from the office has the opposite effect.If you leverage breaks properly, your trough can actually bemoreproductive than your peak.(To see the schedule that very successful people follow every day, clickhere.)Okay, weve learned quite a bit about how to be more productive. Lets round everything up and learn the best time to implement these changesSum upHeres the best time to get stuff doneThink-y stuff in the morning If youre reading this at midnight, youre breaking my heart.Afternoons are sluggish - but insightful Creativity peaks when you arent thinking straight.Night owl? Strike that - reverse itI wrote this post during the evening, but dont worry - Im a night owl. Hoot. Hoot.The two types of breaks Vigilance breaks are when you take a step back and review your checklist before an important moment. Restorative breaks are when you relax to recharge your dwindling batteries.Okay, ready to make some big changes in your schedule? Want to feel like youre making a fresh start? Dan has the right time for that as well.Yes, you could begin implementing all this tomorrow but the research shows we are actually more likely to follow through when we start on what are calledtemporal landmarks.These are natural turning points on the calendar when you can open a new mental account and feel like a new you. Best example is New Years Day, that time when most of us make resolutions - but its not the only one. There are two kinds social and personal.FromWhen The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingThe social landmarks were those that everyone shar ed Mondays, the beginning of a new month, national holidays. The personal ones were unique to the individual birthdays, anniversaries, job changes.So pick your temporal landmark and start fresh.Align your schedule with how your brain naturally works and time reallyison your side.Join more than 320,000 readers.Get a free weekly update via emailhere.Related postsNew Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You HappyNew Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More SuccessfulHow To Get People To Like You 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior ExpertThis article first appeared at Barking Up the Wrong Tree.