| At work, I spend a lot of time waiting. I run a report and wait. I run a query and wait. Today I waited almost an hour for my computer to respond while working at it.
I wait for people, trains, events and on lines. One key is to be productive during this time. Today, I enhanced some software I run to track how long I wait. By quantifying it I see the importance of being able to work or do something else during this time. Reduce Waiting Time One way I reduce waiting time is to beat the crowd at lunch. It's as simple as eating before the crowds start which is a little after 12 noon. Getting in early to work also reduces the time I spend with train and parking problems. Have something to do One idea I have is to have my software pick a small task I can do while waiting for a report to run. You could also just keep a list of small tasks and do them during this time. Get to meetings or appointments early and just have something useful to do. Use the time productively You may be tempted to play a game, check the news, the price of bitcoin 64,659, checking Facebook or Twitter, but find ways to use this time productively. If you do something during this time make sure it's part of your goals. If you spend time each day waiting, then make sure you use this time well. So while waiting, either find productive things to do or decrease wait time. A simple rule could be if you're waiting then clean up. I also thought of the idea that if your software knew how long a task would take it should start the work, it could tell you what to do in the meantime and then tell you when the task you were waiting for is complete. But the simple rule Wait = Clean (W=C) is a good starting point to create this habit. It would be good to know how much time I'm waiting and have a way for a computer to detect this. Another strategy is to have a list that I can access from work or home that tells me what to do while I'm waiting. I could start by identifying where and when I wait and how well I use this time to reach my goals. You can see a random list of things I might do while waiting. Remember "Don't wait do something great." |