One of the things you can always count on is change. I realized this recently. I have a rather odd job that I’m not going to get into here (as it isn’t that important), but the reality of my particular position is that there is occasionally time when there is literally nothing to do. My actual job, during these times, is to simply wait. To be present. To exist. And, as it turns out, it doesn’t matter how I exist during these periods of time. I could sit, stand, jog, read, write, recite poetry: whatever. Now, while all jobs aren’t as crazy as mine, many jobs will, at some point or another, have moments of down time. Perhaps it is the ten minute walk from your office to the weekly meeting? Perhaps it is the commute to and from you take every morning with a colleague. Perhaps it is simply the ten minutes before or after a major phone call. These little bits of time add up, and it is important to be prepared to get work done during those times if it is at all possible. You should make that possibility possible all the time.
So, this weekend, when I was working and sort of suspected I’d have a free moment, I made certain to bring my “bag of goodies” with me. It wasn’t full of candy or apples or anything like that, but paper, and notes, and books, and other items devoted to working on my dissertation. It turned out that having these things literally saved my brain from rotting. I thought I’d have about twenty minutes free… instead I had something approaching four hours. FOUR HOURS! Now, your jobs may not be so fluctuating in the free time you may have (keep in mind, though, that it adds up to a lot), but my job occasionally does. Guess who was happy he had prepared a bag for such situations? That’s right: me. Shouldn’t you prepare something you have with you as often as possible as well? Perhaps something that can help you pass the time productively? I thought so. Get to it.