Bus Productivity

04/08/15

These days, most of my freetime productivity is done on the bus. It makes sense, the only real distraction is paying attention to when I get off, and otherwise it's a long chunk of uninterrupted time that I can devote to what I desire. Further, there's no access to the Internet to distract me, so I must focus only on what I have available to me on my laptop, in my backpack, or in my brain.

What's available is still a large amount of stuff, but it isn't the limitless content that the Internet can provide. Further, when I get stuck, I'm more willing to find a temporary workaround, as I can't google my problem. I don't end up falling down a rabbit-hole of potential solutions. This usually ends up being for the best, as I learn a lot more from my temporary solutions than the solutions I find online.

I really like what bus travel has become for me. Its dual purpose makes it so I don't really mind when I have to wait for the bus for any given reason. The longer my travel time, the more time I have to work on things I normally can't give priority.

The only real downsides to working on the bus is that it cuts into what used to be my reading time. Which is actually a pretty big downside, as I quite value the reading I've managed to do this past year thanks in no small part to my bus-time reading. It is, however, a worthwhile sacrifice to replace reading with actual doing. It will become completely worth it when I've gained what I feel are actual accomplishments.

So, basically, starting to ride the bus has been a great decision. It's cheaper than a car, it's about as expensive as a bike, but because I'm not driving, my transportation time can be spent doing stuff I wanted to make time for anyways. It's a system that multitasks for me, and improves my time-efficiency overall.

I should develop more of such systems.