Time Management On The Move
5 of 15 Things to Do While Driving
We don’t have space for the lot, here, but these are the first five. If you’d like the full set of 15, just email.
1. Make all of those follow-up phone calls that otherwise slip through the cracks of your “normal” days.
Use a quality loudspeaker car-kit or wireless bluetooth headset for your phone (normal wired earpieces work, but the trailing wiring can present a danger in the driver’s action zone.
Find the voice control features on your phone (or buy a new phone that has them) and program the contacts you plan to make, before you leave (it’s twice as quick to do this at your desk rather than while you’re driving – and with zero danger.)
Put your common calls on speed dial and link a voice command to them.
Use the voice record feature on your phone (or on a separate Dictaphone) to keep your notes (and avoid writing them while you drive).
Don’t text, it’s a crime and can be deadly.
Be aware that even with legal technology enabling you to make calls, your attention levels will still be impaired – so compensate with the awareness of this fact.
2. Create a list of things you’d like to learn, that are amenable to passive learning while driving. Buy the material you require and have it in a “I take this when I’m driving” bag, then work your way through your list. Candidates could include:
A foreign language – imagine how good that holiday is going to be if you can actually understand the waiter, or the cute MOTDS* tour guide! (*Member of the Desired Sex).
History; art appreciation; or music appreciation – not the music itself, but a treatise on your favourite music. Positive thinking and affirmations.
3. Download your favourite podcasts before departure and catch up on the road. Take an MP3 recorder to capture your thoughts or commitments to action from these.
4. List the family members and friends to whom you owe calls, then make them feel good and win some brownie points by catching up while you drive.
5. Carpool with team members then brainstorm key challenges, or seek new solutions to old problems while you all have nothing else to do! This could also get you out of your work place earlier, couldn’t it, since you are going to “finish your working day” on the road!
A Safety Tip
Below is one of four safety tips we offer our clients and readers:
Think & Drive: While driving time is great for thinking, avoid daydreaming on “pleasure topics”. When we imagine ourselves in pleasurable situations, whether they be our favourite recreation or that soft, warm motel bed that’s still an hour away, our brain rhythms drop to around the 7-14 cycles per second range where we are prone to “zoning out” of the present and associating into the future. Being zoned into the future can be creative and fun, but it’s likely to become something entirely different when approaching a level crossing, road works or a stationary truck that’s very much in your present! Keep to rational subjects if you’re going to think and drive.
For the remaining ten driving items and three safety tips, just click.
