Getting the most from our time

Back when I first started in sales, I realized I needed to learn more about my profession. Unfortunately, driving 60-70,000 miles a year made it difficult to find the time and energy to learn. Then it dawned on me that I had literally months of wasted time when I was in the car. I started listening to Zig Zigler, Tom Hopkins, and Jim Rohn while I traveled down the highway. I also started listening to audio books and the results were amazing. The drive from Key West to Tallahassee is more than enough time to knock out an entire book.

When I became interested in digital art, I applied the same principle. When I was on the stationary bike or thread mill, I would watch Scott Kelby's videos. It made the time go quicker and really helped accelerate my learning curve.

But we often forget what works and replace our good habits with bad. I spend between 40 and 80 minutes a day driving to and from work. Most of the time I am listening to music or talking on the phone or looking for photo shoot locations. So as I was up way too late last night i stumbled across the Design Matters podcast. DUH!!! Why am I not burning the weekly hour-long show onto cd's and listening to them in my car.

Design Matters Debbie Millman Genre: Design © (c) Copyright 2005, 2006 Debbie Millman.

Today I did and I look forward to listening to back issues and catching up with what I haven't been finding the time to read on my own. By the way last night as I was grading papers and reading student blogs, I listened to a great lecture by Milton Glaser.

SVA MFA Designer As Author: Guest Lectures design.schoolofvisualarts.edu Genre: Design © Copyright 2006 SVA MFA Design

Oh, and by the way, for you fellow Photoshop freaks, Photoshop User TV is something else we should probably be watching each week. And each of these great podcasts is Free.

Imagine next time you are cruising facebook, playing Halo, or just vegging if you were still listening to valuable information and growing your career. Yeah I know. Why did I ever forget these valuable resources?