It seems that on days when appointments stack like Tetris bricks, leaving small pockets of space that are too big to ignore, too small to be useful, one is forced to consider alternatives to their usual activities. Below is a list of potential uses for those 15-30 minute blocks of time you have between meetings.
- Adopt a pet Mayfly – he might only live 30 minutes! Hold a memorial service for said mayfly when he passes on.
- Clean out your desk of miscellaneous papers you don’t need. Extra points if you can get someone to believe you were fired while doing said cleaning.
- Order a pizza to be delivered to your next meeting.
- Find another co-worker in a similar empty time slot and schedule a 1/2 hour meeting to discuss the relative merits of each US President between Polk – Lincoln.
- Eat something.
- Drink something.
- Do something… anything… somewhat productive if possible.
- Adopt a pet Mayfly… oh wait… been there, done that.
- Get your swag on.
- Build a door for your cubicle out of cardboard.
- Reply to mass-emails meant to be rhetorical (i.e. “Why thank you for the invite to your symposium! I’d love to attend but unfortunately can’t be there because I’m having my hair done that day at that time…”). Be sure to reply all.
- Retire your shoes really tightly, then walk until they loosen up.
- Find a desk calendar, make notes such as “Buy supplies”… “Train”…. “Read instructions online”… and then on one day simply write “ACT” and underline it twice. If anyone is reading your desk calendar (or the one in question), they’ll probably take that day off work.
- Take a 20 minute power nap (This is actually good advice if you can do it!)
- Write a blog post of about 300 words, pawning off your own need to fill time as “creative writing”.
So there you have it – 15 things to do in a 30 minute open block of time!
Authors Note: Written yesterday between meetings
[SSDay]