2. Travel Time-Savers
As you travel to your destination, your mode of transportation will allow you a variety of opportunities to produce. There are four major traveling options:
1. On foot—walking or jogging—you might want to stop and take a break on a bench in the city or park off the beaten path to read under a tree, bush, or cave (preferably without bats). Other scenic options include a lake, ocean, or active volcano. Regarding the last-named, if your pages or extremities begin to singe, it's time to get back on the path.
2. On wheels, such as biking, skateboarding, driving, or wheel chairing (with a disability), you can always stop or end up in a traffic jam, which is the perfect time to dig out those papers to grade. If you’re traveling by bus, train, 16-wheeler, RV, mobile home, or army tank, be prepared with lots of work. The time on the trip itself will permit you to do a lot of reading and/or writing, unless, of course, you get motion sickness. There’s also a good chance that you will be waiting before your trip and after as well, especially if someone is supposed to pick you up at your destination. If you end up stranded on a remote, deserted country road in the fog and rain for hours or days, you’ll have plenty of work time; that is, until you’re eaten by a bear or mountain lion. (Note: Always carry a CSI-type flashlight or miner’s headlight for reading, a salami sandwich for eating, plus a knife and gun for defending yourself.)
3. On wings, if you’re on the way to the airport, take plenty of work with you. You could have tons of time waiting for your initial flight, more time for your connections, and still more for the flight you missed or was cancelled. Once you’re finally on the aircraft, you can punch away on your laptop. On long flights across country or overseas, you can really accomplish a lot of writing, reading, or networking with passengers who aren’t snoring. With the trend in airline delays constantly increasing for whatever reason, you quite possibly may be able to complete your article or book if you pick the right holiday, winter break, or spring break flight. This same advice also applies to hang gliding, parachuting, parasailing, skydiving, and bungee jumping, though with less available time.
4. On rudders, once you’ve started up the motor on your speed boat and ride the waves or set sail on the open choppy seas, you’ll probably throw up. Wait, that’s not the end to that sentence. I seem to have misplaced it. Oh, here it is: you will have plenty of time on the water to work on whittling down your “to-do list,” unless you’re a barf bag. Get a patch. If you’re planning on fishing for a catch smaller than Jaws, you’ll have buckets of time to spare.
Use every travel opportunity you have to complete the tasks on your list. You will return refreshed and relieved that the stressful burden of a few of your reading and writing commitments have been lifted from your shoulders. Ahhhhhh. I already feel relaxed. None of these feelings will apply if you hurled your guts on these trips.
I hope these ideas trigger some thoughts on how you can use your travel time more efficiently. My next blog will suggest 20 destinations where you can save even more time. Let me know of any suggestions you have that I’ve missed. We’re all in the time-saving boat together, but you'll have to get out if you get sick.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC & Coventry Press
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