The importance of productivity in your ‘dead’ time
So, recently I’ve been travelling a lot. Not the fun kind of travelling where you end up in some hot, sunny location to have a nice relaxing time, but the more necessary type that ends up with you in an office. This has meant numerous hours on trains. And in stations. And in cars. And walking from the station to the car and so on.
One thing has really struck me; how much time this all takes and how easily this time can be wasted. I mean, I could just download some series from Netflix and mentally switch off. Just sit, zombie like staring at my laptop screen. That would be easy, that is what most people do. I’ve seen them. But instead, I actually find the train one of the most productive places I have ever worked. Part of it is the fact that you cannot be easily disturbed. You can put your phone on silent and immerse yourself in a piece of work. For me, I just plug in some ambient music, fire up Asana (workflow app) and start knocking things off my ‘to-do’ list. It’s probably the most focused time I have in the whole week. 3.5 hours of productivity, each way! It hit me earlier that much of our business is being built on the GWR service between London St Pancras and Plymouth! J
Don’t get me wrong, the Wi-Fi is usually slow but it’s free and fast enough to send emails and access files online, and that’s in cattle class too.
Asana is a particularly useful tool and a great little productivity hack that I cannot recommend highly enough (other workflow apps are available but this one is by far the best). It allows you to breakdown projects into tasks and subtasks and allocate them to specific members of your team. This can all be sync’d to your local calendar and even the communication app, Slack. For us it’s been a revelation. I can sit in a cab or be walking to a meeting and be on Asana, updating my task lists as new thoughts pop into my head. This really enables you to keep your head clear and have the ability to focus on one thing at a time.
Audiobooks are my next recommendation and something that I personally love. Stick them on double speed and apps like Audible can provide vast amounts of entertainment and education when you’re on your feet and on the go. There is a wealth of business, investing and personal development audiobooks out there, as well as podcasts, which you can use to leverage your ‘dead’ time and reap genuine benefits in return. My recommendations for both are below.
Audiobooks:
- Black Box Thinking by Mathew Syed
- Work Rules! By Lazlo Bock
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- Finding my Virginity by Richard Branson
- Bounce by Mathew Syed
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- The subtle art of not giving a f*ck by Mark Manson
Podcast:
- The Garyvee Audio Experience
- Inside Property Investing
- The Tim Ferris Show
- Pig Pods
- The James Altucher Show
- The Disruptive Entrepreneur
And there are loads more. Just have a search in the charts on the podcast app and have a listen!
In the interest of balance, I must also advise against all of this if you happen to be travelling with a companion who wants your attention (e.g. your partner!) or indeed if you really need the rest. The examples I give above don’t have to be restricted to your ‘dead’ time and if you need to take 60 minutes out, you’ll probably be more productive the next day by taking the time to recharge.
So, in summary, don’t waste your time when travelling or moving from A to B. Be productive, listen, learn and adjust. Also, get some Airpods, they really help!
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