Turn Dead Time into Alive Time
Yesterday I had to do something that I really didn't want to do.
I was picking up a shift for my former employer because they were short-staffed and reached out to me because they needed someone to do some IT work in NYC.
As soon as I got to the facility and was greeted and shown around by the person in charge, I was told that for the next 5 hours I would have the enthralling job of sifting through dusty boxes of computer cords and separating Apple, Lenovo, Ethernet, and Power Supply chords.
I was not very pleased with the notion of spending the next couple of hours mindlessly separating cords. In fact, the person who I was reporting to for the day was apologetic about it as well.
"I'm sorry for this man. I wanted to contract this out to some other company but apparently, you have to deal with this. I know it’s shitty work and I'm sorry that you have to do it," he apologized profusely.
Yeah, this kinda blows man, I said to myself, but then obviously told the manager that there was nothing to it and that if this was the job that I needed to do, then there was nothing else to be done but to do it.
I lugged three huge crates of tangled power cords and dusty ethernet cables back to my work station and decided that I might as well make the most of the situation.
I could make the next 5 hours of my life dead time or alive time as Ryan Holiday and his mentor Robert Greene often refer to it as. In the words of Ryan Holiday,
"One is when you sit around when you wait until things happen to you. The other is when you are in control when you make every second count when you are learning and improving and growing."
I very well could have completely wasted those 5 hours - listened to music or stupid YouTube videos as I untangled the dusty wires and later, sneak away for a lunch break 15-30 minutes too long to waste more of the day away.
Instead, I tried to make the most of a "shitty situation" and turned what could have been dead time into alive time.
I managed to listen to almost 8 different podcasts - some Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan episodes that I was behind on and gained a lot from that "batching session". I listened to JRE or Tim Ferriss interviews from Naval Ravikant, Seth Godin, Jerry Seinfeld, Ryan holiday, Dan Harris, Jamie Fox, Michael Lewis, and Hala Taha's interview of Robert Greene.
I learned about the creative process of great writers like Ryan Holiday, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Lewis, and Seth Godin and business and life advice from Naval Ravikant, Jamie Fox, and Robert Greene. Much more valuable than a Netflix binge or YouTube rabbit hole.
The value I gained from these interviews transformed what could have been dead time spent solely rearranging dusty wires, into a listening session with some of the top individuals in their field.
I was listening to these podcasts at 2x the speed - a hack that I picked up from Ali Abdaal earlier this year that has transformed the way I consume content. Most audio experiences (books and podcasts) can be comfortably understood on 2x the speed - even if the guests do seem scared and anxious as if they were at gunpoint.
It doesn't take much to have a good day or chose the alive time. All it takes is one small conscious decision, such as choosing to listen to a podcast while doing some sort of mindless activity rather than choosing to listen to music or some low effort or low return activity - even if you do have to get dust on your hands while untangling some cables.