Katie recently commented on my post ‘How to use the public transport in a good way.‘ I’ve decided to make a case study out of it. Here is her comment:
I take one bus in the morning to school, about thirty minutes. Because it’s a city bus, and I get off before the city, it’s usually pretty empty. If I had a laptop, I would definitely use it, as some of the newer buses have free wi-fi. I generally do planning for assignments in that thirty minutes.
On the way home, I have to take two buses, and that can take up to an hour and a half. It takes about 20 minutes to get a seat (there are about 30 kids from my school that take the same bus, needless to say, we aren’t liked very much). In this time, I listen to recordings of presentations I have coming up (We seem to have at least one every week). The second bus is usually quite empty, so I either read a book that I’ve picked up from the library while waiting for the second bus to come (its great that the stop I wait at is so close), or I write, usually short story. How long I can go for depends on the driver, and how reckless they are around bends. I get car sick when I read or write in buses that aren’t slow or straight.
Every day she travels around 2 hours with the public transport. What she could have done, is listen to her iPod and stare out of the window, instead Katie decides to make the most out of this time and uses her time with school.
‘I generally do planning for assignments in that thirty minutes.’ This is great, because she starts her day good. She makes a planning. When you have to be in the bus at 7am, you probably aren’t awake enough to do reading assignments (you’ll fall asleep) or do homework assignments (you can’t think). But with a planning, you are being active, so you won’t fall asleep and you don’t have to do some hard thinking. But you get in the mood, you are starting your day with a little bit of thinking, overseeing your day. Know what you are going to do. On top of it, you’ve 30 minutes to do this, so you will finish the planning probably.
‘In this time, I listen to recordings of presentation I have coming up.’ This is fantastic, she can’t sit, so you can’t work on anything. (However, when I have to stand I still try to grab a book and read in a packed train.) But what she does is listening to upcoming presentations. This is a form of iPod Studying, what you can also do when you are walking or cycling. Listen to presentation, listen to recorded stuff. You can learn a lot without reading.
‘Read a book that I’ve picked up from the library or write a short story.’ This probably isn’t study-related stuff. On one hand I can understand that you don’t want to read study related books anymore, because you’ve just spend a day at college, but on the other hand, it is the perfect time. You are still a little bit in the study-mood and you can do a lot of reading in the bus. But what Katie does isn’t wrong. She still uses her time useful (when I don’t feel like anything I watch Friends in the train) and she even practices her writing skills.
Do you have an ordinairy way to use the public transport? Do you want to test out iPod-Studying? Please let me know, I want to know your stories, we can all learn from them.
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Stefan:
Thanks for sharing your ideas. I enjoyed reading your post. It can help to use your time wisely.
Many of us tend not to be productive whenever we have some down time, such as waiting for a bus, sitting in a vehicle, standing in a line, etc. We tend to relax and slack off and stare into space.
Even 5 minutes can be an opportunity worth seizing to do some productive–or even creative–work. Even in this age of high-tech, for example, it helps to carry a small note-pad in your pocket and a pen or pencil. Whenever you get a flash of inspiration, make sure you capture that idea immediately. Otherwise, you can lose that idea. This is a practical suggestion.
Also, listen to motivational and self-help tapes by luminaries such as Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and others. Such tapes are available in the market. You can put it into your CD player and forget about the world. And try to apply the ideas you learn too, later. Listening to such tapes can lead to improvement of your personal, professional and academic life too (if you are a student). Surely, it is a better use of time than doing nothing.
Twitter: lionslinger
February 6, 2010 at 7:00 am
When I’m in a public transport, I use the one hour travel time to make my composition. By doing this I’m wasting no time. But when my creativity is low, I use the opportunity to snoop for ideas as the bus runs its destination.