Downtime Learning?
July 25, 2013 4:49 AM Subscribe
To what productive use can I put the (soon to increase) downtime hours at my job? Learning something would be great, other suggestions welcome. Complications: no internet, limited space, no phone access and more inside.
My employment is soon to include what could be several hours of downtime; time I have to be at work but am not required to actually carry out work. Great, you may say; read, listen, watch, write, etc – and yes, that’s all fine and dandy and entertaining. I can take books, tablets, MP3, even a laptop.
But surely, I keep thinking, there’s a more productive use. The limitations are fun; no internet access, no mobile phone coverage, no access to power (so electronics off batteries only – limiting laptops somewhat), can’t make any noise and limited space. Plus, I have to actually stay where I am. So I'm not going to be learning trombone or woodworking (unless they happen to involve an awful lot more theory than I'm giving them credit for).
So, given these restraints; What skills could I teach myself? What can I do to "improve" myself? Bonus points (and best answers) awarded for anything with a possible future side-income.
Looking for skills, rather than formal education. Purposefully including no details on interests, background, etc in the hopes of getting unfiltered responses.
My employment is soon to include what could be several hours of downtime; time I have to be at work but am not required to actually carry out work. Great, you may say; read, listen, watch, write, etc – and yes, that’s all fine and dandy and entertaining. I can take books, tablets, MP3, even a laptop.
But surely, I keep thinking, there’s a more productive use. The limitations are fun; no internet access, no mobile phone coverage, no access to power (so electronics off batteries only – limiting laptops somewhat), can’t make any noise and limited space. Plus, I have to actually stay where I am. So I'm not going to be learning trombone or woodworking (unless they happen to involve an awful lot more theory than I'm giving them credit for).
So, given these restraints; What skills could I teach myself? What can I do to "improve" myself? Bonus points (and best answers) awarded for anything with a possible future side-income.
Looking for skills, rather than formal education. Purposefully including no details on interests, background, etc in the hopes of getting unfiltered responses.
Might be obvious, but learn a language? A few textbooks and exercise books, listening exercises/podcasts predownloaded on an iPod or whatever, and a good offline dictionary on your phone should last you the few hours, and you may be quite productive with your limited access to distractions! It may be more fun if you have a clear goal, like reading one chapter of a foreign book a day.
posted by pikeandshield at 4:58 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by pikeandshield at 4:58 AM on July 25, 2013
You can learn a language by podcast.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:18 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:18 AM on July 25, 2013
Electrical wiring.
"How can I learn electrical wiring," you ask, "given the constraints I've listed?" Well, electrical wiring is one of those areas where--for obvious reasons--it's a good idea to spend some time reading before you start the actual doing. If you own your own home you can pick small projects to practice on as literal "homework" after you've studied up in advance--adding a wall switch in that place you'd always wished there was a switch, swapping out a light fixture, etc.
Money management and investing.
Similar to the above, this is not something that you can turn into a side job without additional formal training, but it's an area where having better knowledge and understanding will allow you to make better financial decisions on your own and be smarter about what you do with your money.
posted by drlith at 5:19 AM on July 25, 2013
"How can I learn electrical wiring," you ask, "given the constraints I've listed?" Well, electrical wiring is one of those areas where--for obvious reasons--it's a good idea to spend some time reading before you start the actual doing. If you own your own home you can pick small projects to practice on as literal "homework" after you've studied up in advance--adding a wall switch in that place you'd always wished there was a switch, swapping out a light fixture, etc.
Money management and investing.
Similar to the above, this is not something that you can turn into a side job without additional formal training, but it's an area where having better knowledge and understanding will allow you to make better financial decisions on your own and be smarter about what you do with your money.
posted by drlith at 5:19 AM on July 25, 2013
I know people who have taught themselves how to knit/crochet/embroider in these sorts of situations.
posted by jeather at 5:22 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jeather at 5:22 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
You have no internet, but do you have a computer?
posted by deathpanels at 5:34 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by deathpanels at 5:34 AM on July 25, 2013
If you have a laptop you can bring, you can learn to create your own video games -- without the internet and without much programming (sounds crazy but it can be done).
Here's a list of game engines you can look at, and you can explore what can be done with those game engines on that site as well.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2013
Here's a list of game engines you can look at, and you can explore what can be done with those game engines on that site as well.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2013
Good for you for asking this. Too much down time at work is dangerous - you're getting paid for nothing, and you get used to not thinking or working hard.
What field are you in? Ideally you'd want to expand that, or adjacent items.
How about an informal MBA? Read MBA books so that you know the information / lingo (for future job interviews or to move ahead in your current job).
Start dreaming up or working on your side business. What kind of passion could you turn into a cottage industry? What skill could you teach?
Download courses from Harvard or the Khan Academy?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2013
What field are you in? Ideally you'd want to expand that, or adjacent items.
How about an informal MBA? Read MBA books so that you know the information / lingo (for future job interviews or to move ahead in your current job).
Start dreaming up or working on your side business. What kind of passion could you turn into a cottage industry? What skill could you teach?
Download courses from Harvard or the Khan Academy?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2013
Figure out how you want to spend the rest of your life and how you will get there:
Get a paper notebook and a pen and start writing down things you wish you had done, things you wish you could do, things you definitely are going to do, etc. Work out the desires and the goals. Rescue regrets from the ashes and resurrect them as new goals.
Describe where you are now. What you know. What you have. What you love. What you like. What you don't like. What has to go.
Start mapping from where you are to where you want to be. Break it down into reasonable chunks, subgoals.
Do it.
Be happy.
(And some subgoals might be other things you can do in this downtime. For instance, "I always wanted to see Italy" could turn into "Learn basic Italian" + "Save X dollars" + "Get time off" = "Go to Italy, speak Italian to strangers, and see the sights" and you can do a lot of the learning Italian during this on-the-job downtime with a book and an MP3 player.)
posted by pracowity at 5:36 AM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
Get a paper notebook and a pen and start writing down things you wish you had done, things you wish you could do, things you definitely are going to do, etc. Work out the desires and the goals. Rescue regrets from the ashes and resurrect them as new goals.
Describe where you are now. What you know. What you have. What you love. What you like. What you don't like. What has to go.
Start mapping from where you are to where you want to be. Break it down into reasonable chunks, subgoals.
Do it.
Be happy.
(And some subgoals might be other things you can do in this downtime. For instance, "I always wanted to see Italy" could turn into "Learn basic Italian" + "Save X dollars" + "Get time off" = "Go to Italy, speak Italian to strangers, and see the sights" and you can do a lot of the learning Italian during this on-the-job downtime with a book and an MP3 player.)
posted by pracowity at 5:36 AM on July 25, 2013 [3 favorites]
Drawing. I have always wanted to work through the book Drawing on the Left Side of the Brain. Bonus: Cheap.
posted by pie ninja at 5:42 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by pie ninja at 5:42 AM on July 25, 2013
Programming and web development can generally be self-taught without the benefit of a network connection. Download a web browser and the zipped version of Eloquent JavaScript, and you're off to a pretty good start. Other resources that leap to mind as being portable on your laptop are GalaxQL, Dive into Python, and a crap-ton of pre-configured apps and servers you could download and run in VMWare Player or VirtualBox offline just to learn what they do. That leaves a bunch of beginner/intermediate questions unanswered, for which you might need to download individual web pages of instructions or put out another call on AskMe.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:52 AM on July 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 5:52 AM on July 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
Learn to whittle. Become a starving carving artist.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:01 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:01 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Really, any sort of podcast. How Stuff Works, Brain Stuff, Stuff You Missed in History, all sorts of stuff out there.
I'm just curious, what is it that limits you to no power?
posted by theichibun at 6:37 AM on July 25, 2013
I'm just curious, what is it that limits you to no power?
posted by theichibun at 6:37 AM on July 25, 2013
Well, whatever computer you bring, have it be heavy on the batter life. Or even have a tablet and wireless keyboard.
I'd lean towards some reading; maybe working your way through a course or two of study for which you can get a certification in your area or an area in which you'd like to work.
posted by tilde at 6:38 AM on July 25, 2013
I'd lean towards some reading; maybe working your way through a course or two of study for which you can get a certification in your area or an area in which you'd like to work.
posted by tilde at 6:38 AM on July 25, 2013
Can you sleep, and then use your normal sleeping hours for productive activities that you can't do at work?
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:55 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:55 AM on July 25, 2013
Origami might be fun. I always wanted to learn how to make one of those origami unicorns in Blade Runner.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:55 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:55 AM on July 25, 2013
Write book reviews. You gain knowledge and improve your writing sklls.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:32 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:32 AM on July 25, 2013
Who's to say that even those activities you've described have to be unproductive?
I spend roughly an hour on public transportation each day reading and have set up targets. For example, I'm currently working on filling in those works I haven't read from a list of the greatest science fiction of all time according to the readers over at Locus Magazine. I figure once I'm done with that, I'll move on to another genre.
For the record, I'm working on this list.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:11 AM on July 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I spend roughly an hour on public transportation each day reading and have set up targets. For example, I'm currently working on filling in those works I haven't read from a list of the greatest science fiction of all time according to the readers over at Locus Magazine. I figure once I'm done with that, I'll move on to another genre.
For the record, I'm working on this list.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:11 AM on July 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by saul wright at 4:58 AM on July 25, 2013