No matter how well we plan our day, we are going to have some idle time periodically. That idle time might take the form of waiting in the lobby for an appointment or sitting in our car waiting for our child to get out of class. That idle time doesn't have to be wasted though. It can be turned into value-producing time with the use of a great tool that I recommend to all my clients—the reading binder.

Throughout the day, we collect interesting articles and bits of information that we would like to read. Often though, it's not the best use of our time to read the article right then and there because our time might be better used for our higher priority tasks. Therefore, I recommend to save those articles to read during idle time.

WHAT'S A READING BINDER?

The reading binder is a folder or three-ring binder that contains articles of information that you collect and save throughout the week and want to read. The reading material can be any form of article or mail that you receive. It would not be the best use of your time to read those articles while doing some other task, so I recommend placing those articles and reading material into a folder that you carry around with you wherever you go and when you have some idle time, you can open up that folder and read those articles that you have collected. Mail that you receive that is not of top priority can be placed in your reading binder to read later also.

THE BENEFITS OF HAVING A READING BINDER

The benefit of having a reading binder versus carrying around a novel is that your reading binder contains powerful and easily digestible pieces of information that you can immediately absorb in a short sitting. A novel or even a non-fiction book takes some time to get into. Your collection of articles that you collect is highly focused information that is relevant to your life and your personal development and by reading a couple of those articles in during your idle time, you can turn your wasted time into valuable time for self growth. Personally, I save articles on management, success mastery, stress management, and anything to do with personal growth because that's the business that I am in and that's what I am interested in. By having my reading binder with me wherever I go, I can turn my idle-time into value-producing time.