Courtesy ASME’s Affinity Partner, American Management Association (AMA)

If you know how to work it, you can turn dead time into productive time. Here are some suggestions:

When traveling, bring as much work as you can comfortably carry and, if possible, bring more than you can do. You'll usually have more time to fill than you thought you had (due to delays at the airport, for instance) and you'll be surprised at how much you'll get done.

If you call someone, and she says, "Let me call you back in five minutes," find a five-minute task that you can interrupt when she calls: neaten your desk; make notes on a job you just did or on other jobs to come; pay bills; read a few pages of a report; or whatever.

When commuting, update your to do list: if you're reading the paper, make notes on news items that might interest your boss or affect your job. If you're driving, listen to training books on tape, maybe learn a foreign language. (You can also listen to such tapes at the gym.)

Make a to brainstorm list: a list of subjects that you need to think creatively about. That list might include "other jobs I could look for," "new responsibilities I could ask for," "skills I'd like to learn," "books I should read." If you're stuck for a while with nothing to do, pick an item on the list and brainstorm. When you have made, say, a list of skills you'd like to learn, use your next dead time to inquire about lessons.

Keep a people to write to list. A written note is almost as easy and fast to complete as an e-mail, and it usually has more of an impact. You can probably dash off a quick note in five minutes -- anytime you have five minutes of dead time -- and this will build your reputation as a great networker.

Keep near you a stack of reports you need to read: you can usually read them in one- and two-minute intervals, whenever some dead time arises.