Reviews for When

by Daniel H Pink

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Pink (To Sell Is Human) should change many people's understanding of timing with this book, which provides insights from little-known scientific studies in an accessible way. He quickly piques readers' interest by introducing seemingly inexplicable patterns: why are prisoners eligible for parole more likely to get a favorable ruling from a judicial panel earlier in the day? Why are adolescents who start school before 8 a.m. at an academic disadvantage? Why are there more complications from anesthesia in the afternoon? The explanations come from research about "the effect of the time of day" on people's thoughts and emotions, which began over a century ago, and which is being refined further now that social media platforms provide a wealth of data that can be analyzed from a chronological perspective. An analysis of millions of tweets from around the world, for instance, revealed a pattern that crossed continents and ethnic groups: "Tweeters felt active, engaged, and hopeful" in the morning and early evening. This is just one of the many findings with practical implications that Pink lays out in the "Time Hacker's Handbook," short sections that follow each chapter. By the book's end, readers will be thinking much more carefully about how they divide up their days and organize their routines. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

If you want a raise, ask the boss in the morningbut never at 2:55 in the afternoon. The reason? Ask pop-science writer Pink (To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, 2012, etc.), who examines what happens when in daily life.It's a truism that timing is of the utmost importance. Mining veins familiar to readers of Malcolm Gladwell and Dan Ariely, Pink delves into circadian rhythms, bimodal patterns, data clusters, and all the other stuff of popular business writing to explore, for instance, what a person's optimal time of day is for such things as collegiality, productivity, happiness, and the like. The answer is that mornings are when good things happen, while afternoons are times of flagging energy, surliness, and negativity. Perhaps surprisingly, afternoon is also the time when ethical lapses are likeliest to occur, with some variation depending on one's "chronotype." Moving on, the author analyzes problems, addresses some of the latest research surrounding them, and then offers a few simple strategies for self-improvement, some a touch soft (join a yoga class), some more pointedfor instance, if you want to be perceived as an effective manager, answer colleagues' email promptly, since "e-mail response time is the single best predictor of whether employees are satisfied with their boss." Timing, similarly, can be a simple matter or a highly elaborate one, as with the food delivery workers who fan out across Mumbai each day, guided by the careful communication of information that "allows the walas to anticipate one another's actions and move in harmony." Pink also notes points at which our culture is inefficient in its accommodation of people who move to different rhythms: night owls tend to greater intelligence and creativity than early risers, but they're forced to be "like left-handers in a right-handed world."Solid science backed by sensible action pointsgood airplane reading for business travelers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Pink (To Sell Is Human, 2013; Drive, 2010) integrates multidisciplinary theories and studies from psychology, decision sciences, neurosciences, and economics to provide useful guidance and framework for readers to understand how good decisions can be made through deliberate timing. Pink explains how to maximize the potential of timing in everyday life by drawing on case examples in everything from NCAA sports to biological studies. Making this even more useful as a self-help guide, in every other chapter, Pink offers snippets from his Time Hacker's Handbook activities, tools, and recommendations that will help readers identify their habits, improve their decision-making timing, and manage their schedules more effectively. Both those seeking this as a business resource and general readers interested in social psychology, time management, personal development, and decision making will find helpful, inspiring, and thoughtful advice from Pink.--Pun, Raymond Copyright 2018 Booklist