‘I don’t have time to do the day job, let alone come up with new ideas’.

In a world of ever-increasing distractions – e-mail alerts, meeting requests, telephone calls, notifications, text messages – it’s understandable that people are finding it tougher to concentrate, although it was on hearing that opening sentence that made me think that it’s not the time you don’t have that is the problem but the use of the time that you do.

We all get the same. As surely as the sun rises, everybody’s got the same amount of time to do as they please with and I choose, wherever possible, to take up two hours of mine by cycling to work and back.

My commute along London’s roads takes me past some of the finest sights and takes roughly the same length of time as the equivalent journey via public transport.

Yes…there is always the need to be aware of your surroundings but, as any regular commuter will know, it’s slightly unnerving just how many times you find yourself either at the office or at home and thinking ‘how did I get here’ as you’ve made the journey on auto-pilot.

In the meantime I’ve managed to find myself one hundred and twenty minutes of time in which the day’s events are free to bubble in my mind alongside thoughts that flow free of distractions. Not only do I arrive at my destination feeling alert but the resulting idea percolation is often where the best thoughts have formed.

How about you? Whereabouts do you find yourself when ideas fall into place?