Braincycles Per Minute...

I've noticed something about my commute activities over the last couple of weeks.  I like to stuff as much into the bus commute as possible, things that I wouldn't normally have time for.  Things like reading, podcast listening and playing my DS.

I usually try to do two things at once but I noticed that certain things don't work well together.  I can quite easily listen to my podcast, take it in and play fairly complex logic puzzle game at the same time.  On the other hand see if I try and read the paper and listen to the podcast, I'm lucky if I even manage to pay attention to one of them finding myself having flick my mind between the two to properly absorb them.

Something else in the same sort of ball park that has become apparent is the effect of listening to music whilst performing other tasks.  I was listening to a fairly uptempo album today whilst at work.  One ear only so I don't completely miss what's going on around me.  I found myself rattling through fairly complex programming whilst listening, possibly faster than normally.  It's like my brain synchronizes with the tempo and ticks along a wee bit faster and more consistently.

Speaking of musical tempo.  You ever listened to music whilst walking up stairs?  I find myself taking steps in time to the music I'm listening to.  Makes it a bit of a work out with anything above about 120 bpm.