How many hours a day do you spend in the car? Have you extrapolated that figure for the year? My figure is just under 400 hours a year. How do you spend that time? Presumably most people will answer with listening to the radio or your own music.

Recently I have realised that there are lots of options for making better use of that time and I have been amazed at how much learning can be done in my commute when previously I would have just been listening to Radio 2.
So here are different ways you can build up your knowledge, rack up a huge amount of CPD and be entertained while driving to and from work:

Audiobooks.
I have 2 sources for my audiobooks. My local library allows free downloads via the overdrive app. Not surprisingly they don't have any dental audiobooks available but they have a pretty decent business and motivation section. That was how I came across the Zero to One audiobook by Peter Thiel (review here: www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/book-review-zero-to-one-by-peter-thiel)
The second source for my audiobooks is Amazon's Audible app. They have the biggest collection of audiobooks to buy worldwide so lots of suitable material. That was how I came across the Ask Gary Vee book (review here: http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/book-review-ask-gary-vee).
Audible is not free (although they do offer a 30 day free trial which allows you to get one free audiobook too). There are various membership plans starting from £7.99 per month and that allows you to purchase one audiobook for free every month, no matter what it would usually cost. Additional books can be bought at their individual price. On my list of books to read in the near future are these as well as many others:
4 disciplines of execution
The E-myth revisited
Black box thinking
Extreme ownership

Podcasts
There are lots of podcasts you can choose. Obviously loads of motivational ones, however if you want dental specific podcasts I would recommend trying The Dental Guys, Dentalpreneur and Dental Hacks to start with.

​And one more potential source of audio material I have discovered is via Dentinal Tubules. While most of their content is video or written articles they have an archive of audio as well. Have a look here: http://www.dentinaltubules.com/browse/audio

If you have found any other ways of making the most of your commute I would love it if you could share it here so others can benefit from it to.

When I am allowed control of the TV remote (which isnt all that often in my house) I really like watching TV shows like "Supervet" and "An hour to save your life". They are great shows with gripping real life drama but I think the real reasons I like these shows are a bit deeper.
Both involve:

• Experts in their respective field at the cutting edge of what is currently possible.
  
• Professionals who are passionate about what they do.
  
• People who really care for their patients.
  
• And also people who are learning things from different fields which can then be applied to their own.
  

In Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick and his team are taking techniques that have been created in human surgery including dental implant techniques and evolving them for saving and rebuilding animals.
In "An hour to save your life" paramedics are pushing scientific barriers with techniques such as rapid sequence induction to give people a chance who only a few years ago would have definitely died before getting to hospital.

When you start to spot this pattern in these experts you can actually see this everywhere. I have recently started listening to audiobooks on my commute to work. Books that are not aimed directly at dentists, predominantly business and entrepreneurship, but the passion and dedication shown by some is infectious and you can pick up on little points here and there that can then make your communication or time management better while at work.

Keep this in mind. Try to learn from experts no matter what field they are in. Keep passionate, keep on caring and don't be so narrow minded as to reject anything not aimed at dentists.

Background
Peter Thiel is an American Entrepreneur and hedge fund manager who has done very well in the tech industry having co-founded Paypal in 1999 which went on to be sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. He then founded Palantir a data analysis company which serves the CIA and is currently worth $20 billion. He was also the first outside investor in Facebook buying a 10% share for $500,000 some of which has been sold which netted him over $1 billion and he still has $600 million left in shares at their current value. His personal net worth is estimated at $2.7 billion according to Forbes magazine.
This book is his textbook about how to create a start-up business largely aimed at the tech industry but there is a lot of relevance to all sectors including dentistry.
​
Review
I found the audiobook version of this book via my local library on the overdrive app. It has been read by Blake Masters who was a student of Peter Thiel. If you are interested in this book I would probably personally recommending reading the physical book rather than listening to this audio version as some aspects are quite technical and Blake Masters has quite a monotonous voice occasionally making it difficult to keep my attention.
This book is very in depth. It covers a lot of elements including the various philosophies of business past present and future, essential understanding of business past history in the tech industry and how to hire and keep staff appropriate for your business.

Relevance to dentistry
This can probably best be explained by summarising chapter 13 in which the book explains 7 critical questions that any company founder should be able to answer about their vision to give them a clear idea of whether they may be successful or not.
These questions are:

1. Engineering. Is your product 10x better than anyone elses?
2. Timing. Is now the right time for your business to start?
3. Monopoly. Will you be able to dominate a market or will competition drive away all your profits?
4. People. Do you have the right team to help you succeed.
5. Distribution. Even if your product is great will people be able to access it? How will you advertise it?
6. Durability. Will you still be thriving in 10-20 years time?
7. Secrets. Have you discovered something no-one else has that will give your company and advantage?

If you want a more thorough explanation of the questions without reading the look here:
http://blog.hypeinnovation.com/peter-thiels-7-questions-for-product-innovation

While this book is aimed at the tech industry I found it fascinating and there were many points that made perfect sense to me as a passionate dentist

Background
Austin Kleon is an Artist and a Writer. This book is a collection of his ideas about how sharing your work, no matter what field it is in, will be of benefit to you and the overall community. I found this copy in my local library business section. It can be bought here:
www.amazon.co.uk/Show-Your-Work-Getting-Discovered/dp/076117897X

Review
While this may be a very quick book to read (a couple of hours will suffice to take all of it in) the ideas contained within it make such perfect sense and I would strongly suggest you read it. It doesn't matter whether "your work" is creating art (consider a master of the composite world of Style Italiano), Science (consider an implant guru on the R.I.P.E. forum), Business (have you checked out the Dentapreneurs group?), or Ideas (maybe this is my field within dentistry?). The main idea is that by sharing your work you will be connecting with an audience of like-minded individuals therefore opening yourself up to new ideas and allowing your work to progress even more. It will also act as your best portfolio so if any potential patients, employers, lenders, colleagues wish to find out more about you they can do so with ease and get an honest reflection of what you do.

Learning points related to Dentistry

• Document what you do. The act of documenting it will allow you to reflect upon it and improve it next time.
• Share your work with others. They can give you praise to keep you sane and critique it to help you improve.
• Enjoy teaching others. Even if you only know a little about a specific subject, that knowledge may help others more than you realise.