I’m not a very solitary person, which is funny since I work from home and end up spending a lot of time alone. But it’s one of the reasons I maintain a very active online presence; social media is a great outlet for my extroversion when my work requires me to be alone. And I can concentrate on writing or some other task that requires focus by just closing a browser tab.
But one of the aspects of my life where my social nature gets in my way is in cooking. Ever since I took a serious interest in cooking some 20 years ago, I’ve found it easier to enjoy my time in the kitchen when someone keeps me company. Even if there are multiple people in the room mostly engaging each other but I can listen to their conversation, that’s still enjoyable. If there’s nobody to keep me company, cooking can become a menial chore, and something I’ll avoid.
So I was pleased to discover this afternoon that podcasts can serve that purpose. I happily prepped a bunch of vegetables for salad while listening to Tim Ferriss’s podcast episode with Margaret Cho, discussing comedy, bisexuality, and nutrition. (These are a few of my favorite things.)
My day-to-day schedule varies so much that I don’t know how often I’ll have the time to do this over lunch, but it’s a great trick to know. There’s something very satisfying about taking the time to peel and chop and slice vegetables and arrange a salad while listening to an interesting conversation take place. And the fact that I can even select the nature of the conversation myself makes it all the better.
It occurs to me that at this point in our history, we have mechanisms to overcome many of our built-in limitations. We just have to connect the dots between our needs and the options available to us.