Active Recall!

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42: “When” – Chronotypes, fresh starts, morning routines, and other cool things

This week we’re talking about Daniel Pink’s latest book When: The Secrets of Perfect Timing.

If you’ve ever watched one of those whiteboard timelapse videos, there’s a good chance it was inspired in some way by the whiteboard video of Pink’s talk about “Drive”.

  • Are you a lark or an owl? (You’re probably a third bird.)
  • Are you looking for ways to improve how you schedule things in your day?
  • Are you looking for a good time to start something? (If not, you might be looking for a good time to end something.)

When has the answers to these questions.

Thinkers 50 named him one of the top 15 thinkers in the world. He had one of the top 10 most watched TED talks ever. And now upwards of twenty people will read about his book as Active Recall’s BOOK OF THE WEEK.

Get to know yourself (What’s your chronotype?)

I took this chronotype questionnaire. Go check it out. It took less than five minutes and asks what times you do certain things and how you feel about certain times. I was a 61 which falls in the moderate-morning category.

An example question: If you had a workout partner that wanted to work out at 10pm, how would your workout go? This was particularly relevant when I took the survey because I did my workout the night before. I don’t usually do night workouts and it was a struggle. And the usual energy boost that leads to a good day instead led to trouble sleeping. That said, I can see getting used to it if I made it a regular thing.

Turn your midpoints into endpoints (And ways to deal with the afternoon trough)

You know what an afternoon slump feels like. Whether it’s from that enormous burrito you had for lunch or if it’s just the rhythm of the day, afternoon’s can be a slog. It’s the midpoint of our day and midpoints can have drops in quality. You don’t have the full tank of energy when starting something and you don’t have the motivation of seeing the finish line.