Turning Downtime Into Productive Time
I spent some time today driving up to Asheville NC, for the TypeAMom Conference.
The drive ended up being quite productive and resulted in me sitting here in my hotel room writing this. (yes, I just took that picture).
Before I left, I grabbed the mp3 version of John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2 and was listening to it the entire drive. I have gone through the course before, but this was a great refresher that got my head buzzing with ideas, including plenty of topics to write my next few articles for the online article writing challenge.
It also got me thinking about all the different ways I use downtime and turn it into productive time.
Obviously you can spent the time driving around listening to audio courses, teleseminar recordings and the likes. My husband and I do a good bit of traveling and driving in the car or flying on a plane is the perfect time for me to catch up on studying.
If you’re not driving, jot down ideas that come to mind as you listen to the audios. If you are driving, make a mental note, or consider using a digital voice recorder to record those brilliant thoughts and ideas.
I ended up outlining this post in my head as I was driving into the North Carolina Mountains.
Don’t forget all the time you spent waiting at a doctor’s office, the hair dresser etc, or even just waiting in the car pickup line at your child’s school. Bring something to read, a notebook to outline future articles or blog posts in, or use a web enabled phone to take care of some emails.
It’s amazing how much you can get done during downtime if you put your mind to it and just get in the habit of doing something productive.
I’d love to hear your ideas … what do you do that’s productive when you’re just waiting around somewhere.
You may also like to read:
- How Can I Be More Productive?
- Get More Productive With Chunking
- How To Come Up With Fresh Blog Post Ideas
Tags: being productive, productive time, turning downtime into productive time
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I like to print out a free report, seems like there are always a few in my inbox and take it with me to lunch. I like to go somewhere that has wifi access and spend my hour reading the report and surfing with my iphone.
If the report is a good one I bring it back with me and either put it to work of file it for future reference. If it is a snoozer I throw it away with my wrappers and napkin.
I bring my laptop into the kitchen and watch a video, or listen to a recording of a teleseminar while I cook, do dishes or clean up the kitchen. I don’t have a lot of “wait” time out of the house but the time I spend doing stuff around the house seems endless!
It really helps pass the time and I get some great inspiration to get back to work once my work in the kitchen is over.
I do the same thing when I fold laundry or really do any drudgery around the house! :)
I do that too Jen. I also like to catch up on videos and audios while I’m walking on my treadmill. I just set my laptop close to it and get moving. I should definitely start doing this while folding laundry. My couch is piled high with clean clothes – again – and this would be a much better use of my time than watching TV (which is what I usually do when I fold laundry).
Susanne