Benefits of public transport - More time

Photo by tallkev

This post is part of a series of posts about the benefits of public transport.

We have already learned that using public transport can make your life more stress-free. As soon as you enter the bus, you no longer need to care about traffic and all the stress it adds to your life.

This brings us straight to another benefit of public transport: You've got more time for yourself. This may sound a little bit strange because we all tend to think that we have got to get to work as fast as possible. But have you ever asked yourself why you need to get there so fast? Because the time you spend in your car is - for the most part - lost time. You have to concentrate on the traffic. The only thing you can do is listen to the radio, unless you're one of those careless people who think it's safe to read the newspaper and make a phonecall while driving a car.

When you're using public transport, you can do a lot more things...

• You can read a book or a newspaper - didn't you always want to read more?
• You can plan your day, with the pen you always carry with you.
• You can listen to music, audiobooks or podcasts (even video!)
• You can play games on a portable gaming console
• You can make phonecalls without risking your life
• You can talk with other people
  
• You can take a nap on your way home after a hard day at the office. Try that in your car..

So, why not use your time more productive? You'd be reading the newspaper anyway, why not combine it with your commute?

Always carry a pen with you

Our brain is a strange thing. It reminds us that we should buy fruits while we are waiting for the bus, but it can't tell us if there's any milk left in the fridge while we are shopping. You have the best ideas at the strangest places, and when you are home again you can't remember any of it. You know you had a good idea, but no matter how hard you try - you can't remember.

There's a simple way out of this dilemma. Capture any idea as soon as it hits you. But how to capture ideas in any situation?

I've tried all kinds of tools to solve this problem. I tried PDAs and smartphones. But in the end, the best tool of all is good old paper and a pen. Even better is the advanced version of pen and paper: The Hipster PDA. Most of you will already know it, but for those who don't: It's basically a pile of index cards used as an organizer. It's a simple but brilliant idea.

Even those modern web applications for making lists, drawings or other documents online can't beat paper. It has lots of advantages over the other so-called advanced tools:

It's instant
No need to boot it up and launch the right application. Just grab it and start writing.

It's flexible
You can do everything you want. Need to write text? Write. Need some drawing? Draw. Need to make a table? Make a table.
You don't have to search for the right application to make a drawing. You could make it everywhere, right there between the text and the table.

It's cheap
Paper and a pen don't cost you hundreds of dollars. Well, you could pay hundreds of dollars for the pen alone - but you don't need to spend that much. For the price of a PDA you can write a lot of ideas on a lot of paper...

It's durable
Drop it on the floor, bend it, throw it threw the room to let off steam. Try that with your smartphone...

It doesn't run out of batteries
Image you want to write down the greatest idea you ever had, and you forgot to recharge your PDA...

The only thing that doesn't work that well for me on paper is my calendar. I don't want to change my calendar everytime a meeting gets rescheduled. I want it to sync with my smartphone automatically. But for everything else nothing can beat my Hipster PDA. If you haven't already, you should give this a try...