When by Daniel H. Pink
Another month, another Book of the Month! Starting with its title, When by Daniel Pink hones in on just how simple the idea of timing things better really is. The question of “when” is in the same fundamental category as where, why, how, and what.
Yet, as Pink notes:
“We simply don’t take issues of when as seriously as we take questions of what.”
That’s starting to change. One of our favorite article titles ever is “Medicine in the Fourth Dimension” by Cederroth et al. In it, the authors highlight the growing awareness of how circadian biology influences drug efficacy and tolerability. At Arcascope, we think that so many aspects of health and wellbeing could benefit from taking the dimension of time into account, and that dosing time could come to be seen to be as fundamental as dosing amount.
But we didn’t just enjoy this book because it recognizes that timing matters. We also liked it for highlighting something we experience every day as we work on product: Sometimes you’re alert, and sometimes you’re not, and you should take breaks when you’re not instead of powering through. As he writes in his conclusion:
I used to believe that lunch breaks, naps, and taking walks were niceties. Now I believe they’re necessities.
Of course, you can’t always take a break when you need one most. But there should be more recognition—from employers, schedulers, and from ourselves—that human beings aren’t constant in time over the course of a day. We change from dawn to dusk, and our needs change too. Maybe that means timing light or exercise to help yourself adjust to a shift faster, or maybe it means giving yourself a break so you’re not hammering away at a problem when your brain just isn’t having it.
Timing things right is what Arcascope is about. Want to see When we tell you to do stuff? Reach out about getting on our early app access list.
