Getting More from Less

When I saw the title of the WORKawesome blog’s latest entry —6 Ways to Get More From Your Commute Time— my eyes rolled. It reminded of my days in “Fortune 500 World” where the advent of BlackBerry meant I was never really off the clock. This included not just my nights and weekends but also my commute, which consisted of a 25 minute ride on the express train, a 10 minute subway schlepp under Metro DC and a three block walk to the glittering tower of Big Company. Always being one to subtly buck the well established system, however, I would use my short train ride to indulge in a definitive guilty pleasure: sleep.

Thus it seemed that clicking the link would provide me with a bulleted response to the all too memorable conference call with middle-management waxing on about Big Company, how we must maximize productivity for Big Company, how Big Company loves us and wants what’s best for our families, etc. Of course there was a hat tip to so the so-called “work/life balance”, but the “life” part of that balance was solidly rooted in and stemmed from the “work” part.

(An example might sound like be sure to spend time with your family and only check your BlackBerry occasionally as opposed to be sure to turn the damn thing off and forget that Big Company exists for the night. As ardently as I lobbied for the latter, I was sternly told that salaried employees like myself should be available whenever/wherever needed.)

As this unfortunately normative experience flashed on my mental screen I found myself clicking the link. With eyes wincing and profanities at the ready, I began to read about these productive uses for commute time. 

Ms. Johnston, however, roundly surprised me with her list:

• Read
• Listen
• Exercise
• Socialize 
• Daydream

What?! Amazing. Somebody “gets” it! 

It’s no secret that all of our “connectedness” is a mixed bag. Sure, we know more, know it sooner, make decisions faster —even good ones sometimes— etc. But what we can easily miss is what most people have had in abundance for most of history: silence. 

For most of history man lived an essentially quiet life: there was n0 traffic noise, no media, no airplanes, no phones, no anything electronic (much to my children’s utter shock). Silence, this great black hole of non-external stimuli, allowed people to think about what they’d seen or heard for long periods of time without new or other information being introduced. 

I can’t imagine what that’s like. Even walking from my office to the corner store presents me with billboards, road noise, car stereos and the like. 

What I *can* imagine is closing my eyes as a train drones north, muffling most hubbub with it’s white noise of forced air and engine hum, with any gadget demanding I read the latest tweet, respond to the latest email or grab the incoming call gladly turned off. Come to think of it, it was rarely the sleep that was important, but rather the unplugging (sleep was just an excuse for my boss!). I’m glad someone like Ms. Johnston agrees.