Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Lessons From Airplane Work
Lately, I’ve heard lots of people saying that they’re saving some sort of thoughtful work or another for their next airplane ride. Their plan is to resolve a thorny strategic issue or come up with a good name for something, etc., while cruising over Iowa or the North Atlantic. Research on how human minds work indicates that airplanes in flight are about the worst sort of physical environments for effective thinking. Even ignoring the cramped conditions, the random and sometimes disconcerting noises made by the airplanes or nearby children, and similar issues, there are other problems with getting good work done while airborne. When we’re dehydrated, and dehydration happens a lot while we’re flying, or at the air pressures encountered inside an airplane, our minds don’t work as well as they do on the ground. But still, working on an airplane seems like a better plan than other options to …
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