How should I spend my idle time?

“Walking had an added benefit: it helped me to think. Nietzsche wrote, ‘All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.’”
—Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

Since moving to Toronto, I’ve chosen biking as my preferred method of transportation. The benefits include a fair share of cardio, getting to places quickly, and the opportunity to listen to audiobooks or podcasts. However, the speed also means less time to make progress in my listening affairs. I’ve been considering whether walking is a better alternative, in other words, if the balance between travel time and time to read/listen should tilt towards the latter.

Now, whether I bike or walk, there’s another trade-off: to listen or not to listen (a.k.a. think). In recent years, I’ve found that walking helps me see things clearly when solving problems or studying complex concepts—usually in the form of pacing while bouncing a small red ball. When not actively trying to solve something, I let my subconscious work on it before actively thinking about it again. Thus, during idle time (e.g., commuting, cleaning), I lean towards listening rather than active thinking. This favors knowledge acquisition over knowledge production. I plan to test Nietzsche’s hypothesis and try the opposite to see if it works for me. Knowing myself, I predict an 80/20 allocation of listening to active thinking would be ideal (Pareto, is that you?).

Image by johnstocker on Freepik.