• On each flight, a business traveler jots an entry into his journal while he waits for the plane to finish boarding.
• A mother gets her two kids ready for day care 10 minutes before they need to get in the car each morning, so all three can play together for those 10 minutes before embarking.

These scenarios were mentioned on two different podcasts I listened to this week about productivity and time (I may need to lighten up on my podcast consumption!). They struck me as brilliant. Both examples have triggers to remember and repeat the habit (boarding a plane and the start of the commute). I’m a huge believer in the cumulative effect of habitually repeated actions: Results, long-term can be astounding.

Tiny things are so much easier to do and to keep up with than big, hairy, audacious goals. And they fit so nicely into these little, previously wasted, time pockets.

You and I are in luck, because business travel includes so many of these time pockets, time otherwise known as waiting.

Is there something you wish you could do but don’t because you don’t think you have the time? Start with a baby-step action and fit it to a travel time-pocket.

Some baby-step actions towards something bigger:

• If you’ve been wanting to start a blog: Add one post idea to a running list of topics you want to write about. (Sometimes the hardest part of blogging is to figure out what you want to write.)
• Research links increased happiness with gratitude cultivation, so you’ve been meaning to keep a gratitude journal: Jot down three things that went well on each trip.
• You’d like to up your professionalism: Hand-write a quick note of thanks to someone you met with on the trip.
• If you’ve been wanting to organize your photos: Move 10 recent photos into folders you’ve created. (Or one that I’d like to incorporate is to delete duplicate, poor or useless photos recently taken.)
• If you’ve been meaning to become more active in social media: Send one tweet.

Now pick a trigger, depending on whether your action requires 30 seconds or five minutes. Aside from plane boarding time, others might be:

• The wait for a hotel elevator. (Come on, we know you’re spending that time checking yourself out in that big mirror.)
• After dinner, when you return to your hotel room. (Who doesn’t have five minutes here?)
• Taxi time or waiting for the valet to bring your car. (Valets take forever, or at least it seems that way.)
• If you’re not at the front of the plane, the wait in line to deplane. (I’ve never ever seen anyone use this time productively except for checking email.)

These things can add up to boost your travel productivity! I want to begin a habit of always tweeting a photo from the airport gate, a place with endless photo ops. Closer to home, I’ve been taking advantage of a little time pocket: When I heat water for tea (which I do at least a few times a day), I put the cup in the microwave, punch in two minutes, and while I wait, I swing a kettlebell I keep nearby. A painless way to build a little exercise into the day…and surprisingly effective.

The glorification of busy-ness concerns me. We have more time than we think, and I’m working on having clear priorities and intentionality in how I spend it. How about you?

Photo: Flickr/Switchology