Can the time of day affect how creative you are, whether or not you will get a raise when you ask for it, if you will get better treatment in a hospital or score better on tests. Well, the research overwhelmingly says yes, to all those things and many more.

Big data studies show that there is a two hour window during the day that doctors are more likely to give a fatal dose of anesthesia? In that same two hours students are more likely to bomb on standardized tests and CEO’s are more likely to say something stupid on quarterly earnings calls, leading to a plummet in their stock price?

These two hours is what Daniel Pink calls the Bermuda Triangle of day. Listen in to learn when these two hours are and how to manage our workflow around them, in addition learn when our most productive time of the day is as well as our most creative. 

Drink of the Week: 5 O’clock Tea 

https://us.inshaker.com/cocktails/945-five-o-clock-tea

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson, a full-service branding, marketing, and PR and communications agency with team members in Boston, LA, Miami, and NYC. https://nickersoncos.com/

Julie Brown:

Website- ​https://juliebrownbd.com/

Instagram- ​https://www.instagram.com/juliebrown_bd/

LinkedIn- ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-brown-b6942817/

Youtube- ​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIwWVdayM2mYXzR9JNLJ55Q

Daniel Pink

https://www.danpink.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhnzxrNpCc

Episode Research

https://www.nm.org/about-us/northwestern-medicine-newsroom/nm-news-blog/power-of-music-to-cope-with-covid-19

https://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/jpm.2020.0739

Can the time of day.

Affect how creative you are, whether or not you will get

a raise when you ask for it.

If you will get better treatment in a hospital.

Or score better on tests.

Well, The research overwhelmingly says yes to all of those things and many more.

Welcome to episode 78 of this shit works.

I am your host, Julie Brown.

And today I am discussing the book when the scientific secrets

of perfect timing by Daniel pink.

This episode is sponsored by Nickerson a full service branding,

marketing PR and communications agency with team members in Boston.

Los Angeles, Miami and New York city.

Visit them@nickersoncos.com.

Did you know that there is a two hour window during the day

that doctors are, more likely to give a fatal dose of anesthesia?

And that same two hours students are more likely to bomb on standardized tests

and CEOs are more likely to say something stupid on quarterly earnings calls,

leading to a plummet in their stock price.

These two hours is what Daniel pink calls the Bermuda triangle of the day.

And it is the hours between two and four.

Why is this?

You might ask, well, Daniel's research in big data studies show that our

attention and mental ability is biologically programmed to rise and fall.

According to our circadian rhythm.

Based on the idea that we are generally awake for approximately 16 hours per day.

Our attention and mental ability peaks.

Troughs and then rebounds at the same time, over the course

of that 16 hours day after day.

So let's break this down.

Our peak time.

The time when we can best do logical work is the first seven hours of our day.

So if you generally wake at 6:00 AM, your peak time is between 6:00 AM.

And 1:00 PM in the afternoon.

This peak time is when you are using the left side of your brain.

It's best for doing research scheduling important calls.

If you're a student, it would be better to schedule your science

and math classes in the morning.

When your logical brain is firing on all cylinders.

The trough time.

The time when mistakes generally happen is between seven and

nine hours after you wake.

So if you wake at six it's between one and three, With 2:55 PM being

the least productive time of the day of any day, day after day.

According to studies.

Daniel says the best thing you can do in this trough time

is to actually take a nap.

Studies show that Italian police officers who took naps immediately

before their afternoon and evening shifts had 48% fewer traffic accidents

than those who didn't take a nap.

Now.

Taking a nap is easy if you live in a country that believes in siesta in the

afternoon, but that's not so much here in the hustle and grind culture of America.

So Daniel says, if you can't take a nap, Schedule your least important,

most mundane work during this time, go for a walk, run your errands, do

not work on the things that require your logical brain to be at its best.

Now the rebound time is the last seven hours of your day.

So in general, between three and 10:00 PM, but notice.

The beginning of the rebound time is still in the so-called Bermuda

triangle of the day for one hour

If you wake up before seven o'clock.

This is when we are inching back up to better for performance.

The rebound time is when we are tapping into the right side of our brain,

the more creative side of our brain.

So, this is when you should schedule your creative writing graphics,

brainstorming sessions with other people.

If you're a student schedule your art design or music classes in

these hours, as you can more easily tap into your creativity, then.

Now.

This is all based on the idea that you have a regular or early

chronotype, meaning that you are more of a morning person.

Only 25% of the population are people who have a so-called late chronotype,

meaning you are slow to get up.

You have a moderate amount of energy by mid morning and your energy actually

increases as the day goes on with a big surgeon energy in the evening.

If that is you.

Your rebound and your peak are actually opposite.

Meet work on more insightful creative work in the morning.

And leave the logical more structured work for nighttime.

This makes total sense for me.

I wake around five 30 every day, and I like to crank out a lot of logical

research-based tasks in the morning.

But I always crash around one 30 in the afternoon.

Prior to reading this research, I always equated it with this, you know, this

crash with, and being sluggish in the afternoon to having just eaten lunch

and experiencing a slight food coma.

I had actually started to not schedule too much in the hour and

a half between one 30 and three.

Knowing that at three, I would always have a rebound of energy and creativity.

So this cycle peak.

Trough.

Rebound.

It happens to us every day.

And if we become more attuned to it, we can begin to structure our days around

it for better performance and efficiency.

Oh yeah that thing about the res want to know what the best time to ask for raises

Daniel says do it sometime after one.

But before two.

After one, because if your boss has taken a break and eaten lunch, they are probably

in a better mood than if they were hangry.

And this is a little bit of a sweet spot before that 2:00 PM trough kicks in.

The book is other keynotes.

Go on to describe so many other things that are tied into timing.

Like what is the most common age for someone to decide

to run their first marathon?

Also what two months of the year have the highest peaks in

divorce filings and so much more.

It's not just about your daily timing, but how dates and times affect our behavior.

I want to thank listener, Megan, for asking me to look into this subject

and to create an episode around it.

I found it completely fascinating and insightful.

I hope it was helpful for you.

And that you're interested in learning more about his book and his studies.

I'll put a link to that book and a couple of his keynotes in the

show notes for you to check out.

Now.

Onto the cocktail of the week.

I looked for a cocktail with a reference to time that I would actually enjoy.

And I found it in a cocktail called five o'clock tea.

That seems perfect for the time of the day when we were in our rebound time.

Here's what you're going to need.

One and a half ounces of dry gin.

One ounce of honey syrup.

I've given this recipe before in previous episodes.

Half.

An ounce of lemon juice and two ounces of camomile tea.

Chilled.

Pour all the ingredients into a mixing glass and fill that glass

with ice and stir, and then stream into a chilled martini glass.

All right friends, that's it.

I hope you liked today's episode.

Once again, if you have time, please take a moment to like, and

review and subscribe and share with your friends until next week.