It’s not often that I find myself in the passenger seat of a car with enough time on my hands to actually be productive. The reason is simply because I’m not too fond of traveling for long extended periods of time and if I am I want to be the one that’s driving since it helps me pass the time.
Ultimately I simply feel that driving wastes valuable time from working on the things that I need to work on. Sure, it’s a necessary evil but I have the right to whine every so often, right?
But on long road trips, like the one I just completed from Atlanta to Pennsylvania, it was wise to take turns with my wife simply because it’s not smart to drive 18 hours straight without a bit of help – who would have thought?
But thankfully I had my trusty Macbook Air and enough power to do some serious damage and that’s what I did. I was able to knock out some serious blog posts during my time in the passenger side and it was actually quite enjoyable.
Here are a few tips that I was able to extract from the experience that might give you a boost the next time you find yourself in the same situation:
1. Short Term Goal Setting
I’ve spoken of this before and this is generally one of my top strategies for keeping exceptionally productive in nearly all that I do and it couldn’t have worked more perfectly in the context of a moving vehicle!
For example, unless you have amazingly-comfortable seats in your car your rear end gets uncomfortable quickly and you’ll need to shift around to find a more comfortable spot. What I found was that I’d try to give myself short spurts of writing between the shifts of my body weight. It forced me to hammer out words and sentences at quite a pace!
I did the same thing with exits as well. If I saw an exit sign #204 then I decided that I’d try to write the next 500 words before the exit #184 giving myself about 20 miles to write 500 words or so, give or take a few.
These mini-challenges and short term goals kept my writing focused and it worked some serious wonders.
2. Take Advantage of Zero Internet
Since I spend most of my time in a location that has a decent connection to the world wide web it’s very rare that I find myself without it – and wow, it’s incredible how distracting the internet really can be the moment you realize it’s not there to distract you!
But the temptation to turn my iPhone into a mobile hotspot (and check my favorite Twitter app among other iPhone apps) was a big one so I turned my phone off and even went the extra mile by activating one of my focused writing apps that I’ve been using.
Not that I had too much of a choice but with this focused canvas for writing I was able to truly focus my writing efforts and productivity. Take full advantage of being off and use that desktop writing utility the way it was supposed to be used: Hardcore writing!
3. Plan Your Content
One of the things that I was able to focus on during my drive was planning for a few of the upcoming blog post series that I’m producing. When I was tired of actually writing content for a specific post I jumped up a few levels and outlined some of the core components of the series (learn the value of creating blog series here) – and that was a great change of pace.
Without distraction of the internet I was able to really take a good look at the content areas that I wanted to write about and cohesively create the general outline of the many future series – some of which I wasn’t sure that I was going to get to anytime soon!
But since I was able to spend the necessary time to create the skeleton structure I became seriously excited about them and was even able to document the main bullet points of some of the foundational points.
Use the time that you have in the car to facilitate, if you can, maximum productivity and you’ll find that time in the passenger seat (or back seat) to be actually worth your while.
Any other “pro” tips from you guys that travel extensively? Share them in the comments!
I always find great stuff on your blog, keep it coming!
My blogging travel tip is to jot down new ideas into evernote while traveling. Long trips can be a great time for thinking through ideas and coming up with new ones.
you’re right. i often come up with new ideas on trips…
Great tips John. I’m going to be on a houseboat somewhere in Oklahoma in the middle of August. I expect there to be no internet there. I’m actually kind of nervous about it having just launched geekfori.com. I’m also going to be in Europe at the end of July and am equally as nervous about that… I’ll have spotty internet the whole time I’m there… and NO USE OF MY IPHONE! :/
This week I am starting to draft a lot of posts to go live when I’m gone. I’ll have to do the same for August. I’ll definitely be using the time on the houseboat to plan future content so that will be exciting!
houseboat… i want some pics.
Hey – I saw somewhere (on a blog) that there was a schedule of future posts! Sort of a calendar – that might be a great idea for you while traveling! Do the actual schedule now – so you know when you need to write – and once you get somewhere with internet, upload!
JS
yes. this is true. i do schedule out in advance…!
I’m growing in the area of #3 (outlining posts).
outlining is pretty darn important… i spend a lot of time in that.
Great post. I love your advice on increasing productivity. I’m also counting down the days until I have a Macbook Air to travel with.
OMG… please let me know when you do…… i freakin’ LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE my macbook air…….!
http://tentblogger.com/macbook-air/
How funny. I saw your email notification for this post as I was riding in a car between Austin and Houston. By the time I got to H-town, I had written a post. Thanks for the inspiration.
you are a gangsta! road warrior!
It seems I’m always in the driver seat, so one crucial tip for me has been listening to podcasts that give me blog ideas. The car is a great time for idea generation. It’s also a good time to start thinking through posts so I can nail them out when I get behind the keyboard.
Love the short term goal setting! It’s Parkinson’s law at work.
how do you capture ideas when in the driver’s seat?
Pen and Paper.
No, just kidding.
I have a portable digital recorder that I got at WalMart for like 30 bucks. I keep it in my car for when ideas strike. I use this all the time when driving around town.
Then, if I have an idea I know I want to input into my “idea system,” I put the recorder in my pocket – that way I remember to input the idea. I don’t like using my iPhone simply because it’s a little cumbersome to use while driving, and I have to remember if I have anything to input or not.
ah! i have a old sony recorder… battery life is amazing (must better than an iphone) and much smaller.
Interesting ideas, but sitting with anything that is hard or pointed in your lap is extremely dangerous to yourself and other passengers, as it can quickly become a dangerous projectile. Anything that is not firmly secured is a hazard to the health of everyone in the vehicle.
Here are the results for Flying Laptop Kills
why thank you for that.
I don’t spend a lot of time writing in the car, but rather my mode of transport where I get the most done is the airplane. I will traveling to Europe this week and 14 hours is good for writing, reading, catching a few movies & sleeping. Since I will be photoblogging through Europe I will put my skeleton structure together in the plane & that should put me ahead of the game when I hit the ground. I will also use that time to map out another blog series or two. These are great ideas.
what blog series you got planned?
I find myself to be most inspired when I’m on public transport. The white noise effect of everything going on around me really helps me focus. This isn’t the place for a laptop though, so you’ll usually see me with a manually operated pencil and paper.
i’ve heard about this too. i need the noise to stay productive… that’s why i play music.
ola….im from indonesia…i also travel alot for culinary blog of mine.. actually i dont write long so i really need only a good space in the hotels to sit down for half hour and produces good writing with my blackberry photos
…have a look at my blog..tell me wud u think….
John..u have really inspired me more n more…
I also do lots of listening to Podcast, old way with iPod and iPhone and now with Stitcher. When ideas come – they either go into the music recorder on the iPhone or Evernote. From there – they get scheduled and worked on!
this is great! not sure i’ve heard of stitcher before…
I’m preparing to go to Biloxi, MS. from Dallas. I intend to let one of my aunts or my Mom drive and, oh man, its going to be on like blogger king kong!