Dan's book-writing 'bricklaying' process

Episode 239: Dan Pink - The Scientific Secrets Of Perfect Timing (When)

Daniel Pink is the author of six provocative books — including his newest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, to be published in January 2018. His other books include the long-running New York Times bestseller A Whole New Mind and the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into 37 languages. If you'd like to listen to the first time Dan joined me on The Learning Leader Show, CLICK HERE.

Dan's TED Talk on the science of motivation is one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, with more than 19 million views. His RSA Animate video about the ideas in his book, Drive, has collected more than 14 million views.(from DanPink.com) (Photo Credit - HOW Design)

The Learning Leader Show

"It's like brick laying. I show up every day and I hit my word (count) goal. Day after day after day. Every day."

Show Notes:

• Dan's book writing process:
  • "It's like 1930's football... One short play at a time."
  • Brick laying, very laborious...
    • Get in office by 8:30 and hit the writing (word count) goal every single day... Day after day after day after day...
    • Write 700 words a day, every da
      • "I show up and hit my number, every single day"
  • Combining research with interesting stories -- work in chunks, have research in a Word doc, and the book in a separate doc. Review, go back and forth
  • Go through the (printed out) research, highlight, underline, review a lot
  • If you do this every day, it adds up
• Why write about this topic? The topic of When
  • As a writer, you must pick a topic you are VERY interested in... You spend years on the project (research, writing, speeches)
  • "I wrote this book because I wanted to read it"
• How to know if an idea is worth exploring?
  • "You don't... But when you share it with others, does it create curiosity in them? Do they ask follow up questions? If they do, you may be on to something"
• The 3 stages of our days
  • Peak - Analytical work, smart
  • Trough - The afternoon "Bermuda Triangle" -- A bad time to make decisions
  • Recovery - A creative time
• Why lunch is the most important meal of the day -- This is a time where you need to leave what you're doing, go outside, go with a friend, disconnect from work, don't look at your phone, need to recharge
• Breaks are enormously important - Social breaks (with friends) are better than solo breaks
• Napping for 20 minutes in the afternoon is very helpful
  • Drink a cup of coffee, set you iPhone for an alarm to go off in 23 minutes, lay down with an eye mask. If you fall asleep in 5 minutes, you get an 18 minute nap, and you wake up and the caffeine starts to kick in
• Why NBA players who get more "touches" have more success than others... Scientific evidence supports this
• The importance of endings... How we end things:
  • Energize - More 29, 39, 49 year olds run marathons than any other age. People want to end on a high note
  • Encode - Evaluate and record experiences - How something ends is very important. Look at Yelp reviews -- People remember the experience for how a meal ended more than anything else
  • Elevate - People prefer rising sequences. Dan's favorite tip: When sharing good news and bad news, always START with the bad news, and end with the good news
• We are very intentional about who, what, why... why aren't we intentional about WHEN? We should be...

"We are very intentional about who, what, and why. We aren't intentional about WHEN. We should be."

Social Media:

• Read: When - The Scientific Secrets Of Perfect Timing
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