4 Ways to be productive when you least expect it.

Sometimes life can deliver opportunities for you to have some non-scheduled productive time which you can take advantage of. The question is: are you ready for when they appear?

Two examples:

1. A scheduled meeting is cancelled and you have a windows of time with nothing scheduled.

2. You forgot that your vehicle was due for a service and you have to get it done today, but that will mean waiting an hour in the waiting room.

In this times you can be quite productive providing you plan for it. Thanks to technology you can work on tasks as if you were at home or in the office.

Some things I’ve done lately when these moments have come up.

1. Process email – In particular emails that are in the ‘read later’ folder. These are the newsletters, flyers and other items that are not urgent but you want to read when you have the time. Now is a perfect time. I can do this on my smart phone or on my laptop.

2. Using a service like Readability or Evernote Clearly, you can read those items you saved to read later. Both services allow you to ‘capture’ a web page and then save it to an easy to read format for review later. I use Evernote Clearly myself more and more for those items that I tag ‘to-read later’.

3. Go thru some things in your physical ‘To-Read’ folder.  Just like your electronic folder, you probably have a collection of physical items that come in via mail or courier, stuff like product catalogs, newsletters, etc. I keep a file folder with me of items that I can review when I have these moments.

4. One last option. Do nothing, simply reflect and / or meditate. Take the time to go for a short walk or simply observe the world going on. Productivity can be helped by some ‘down time’.

Having the options available for when this sort of opportunity occurs will require some planning in advance but will pay itself off it you can feel better about using your time.