Making the most of extra time

- What do you do with those extra moments of time? You know what I'm talking about, those little minutes here and there, perhaps where you're on the bus or you're waiting for someone to arrive. What do you do with that extra time? Here are a few options to consider to make the most of that time. Number one is perhaps the most important, do nothing. Does that sound strange? I believe that there's a lot of value in just allowing ourselves to enjoy where we are and just experience the quiet.

We do not have to constantly stimulate ourselves. In fact, sometimes that gets in the way of productivity. Number two is checking, particularly checking your email or your voicemail. Now, this is different than the full fledge processing that I describe in Time Management Fundamentals, this is simply glancing through a list of email and asking yourself one question, can this wait until my processing time? If it can, then you just leave the email in the inbox, but if it can't, then you're going to pick it up and quickly do something about it.

Number three, you can use the time for learning. For instance, you could watch a video here on The Library, or maybe you read from a book. These little moments here and there give you opportunities to create a cumulative store of knowledge. Number four is do some sort of low level relaxation. I'm talking about playing a quick game or maybe watching a funny video. They key here though is something that is not involved, something that you can quickly disengage from when it comes time to get to work.

Overall, what you're looking for is an opportunity to slow down. We don't have to constantly be moving. Productivity is more about rhythm, not perpetual motion.