I love travel and adventure, and most of all, discovery. That’s why I love google maps and, in general, all the GSuit. Let me explain. I think, a lot of people feel the same way, we all want to hunt down the most places and experiences possible, maximize all what our eyes and mouth can get. To achieve this goal, we need to invest time wisely. That’s why what I value the most is time. So, how in this world and our tech-times we can try harder to find ways of reducing the possibility of wasting time? First, we need to have an idea of how our life relates to time.
All of us as human beings, use a lot of time in necessary basic activities such as working, sleeping, eating and exercising. So, in my opinion, if we want to take advantage of the rest of the time to be able to share it whit family, friends, hobbies and other stuff, it’s important to evaluate two things when we are about or we are already investing that time:
a)Desire-Availability Equilibrium: we need to know what we want, and have good information and tools to make the best decision so what we want and what is available is as close as possible without expending time trying.
b) Get the most of time: when we have adequate information at hand, we will avoid a lot of problems that are time consuming and that can bitter our experience. For example, arriving to a place that is not Wheelchair Accessible. Arriving before its open. Trying to pay with a card in a place that uses only cash and there’s not ATM around. Telling to someone that you will arrive to a meeting at certain hour, but you didn’t check the traffic so you arrived late.
Don’t get me wrong, evaluating and getting the information mentioned above doesn’t rip off the adventure-soul of the experience. For me, doing this let me more time to spend as I want.
But, how I personally take advantage of the rest of the time? The principal tool I use is the google maps app (in fact all the Gsuit).
I can give you two examples of how I do it.
a) Spending time with my family: I hang out my mom and uncles once a month because of geography and work. When we meet for meal or plan a vacation, I have to take into account for the differences in ages, tastes, styles of enjoying time and the particular necessity.
So, I always start asking them their wishes in general terms, for example: you want water and sun or prefer mountain? Do we need special spaces for kids or it will be a only adults event?. Are we taking the dog with us? there’s a specific attraction we want to see? When I have this general info, I start playing with google maps and google search. When I find a place in general that meets the general desires of my family, then i start with specifics.
I check individual places like restaurants, attractions, bathrooms, etc, and check the reviews and comments in google maps. As i have a clear idea of the necessity of everyone in my family i check this needs are fulfill for the places we are going to visit, and then i briefly explain to my family possible walking time, road trip, wheelchair accessibility among others. This small research en gmaps make so easy our hang out with family. I create a label in each place we want to meet so its easy for me to have everything at hand, so i just click to the next label to go there. We avoid so many problems because of this. We don’t need to be changing places because of wheelchair accessibility, payment method, we find parking easy, we ask for the recommendations in the menu or we have hints for having a great time in our hang out.
b) I usually receive in my home people from different parts of the world that expend some days here. As I want to make their stay as light-weighted and nice as possible, I share with them the map of the surroundings that I create with labels in gmaps, so they have access to the touristic attractions and the basic necessity of life: laundry, food store, vet, places where they can take a bus, farmer markets, and my favorite places among others. This information save time to them and make easier the stay.
I want to highlight two advantages of google maps. Firs of all, by ranking and commenting on every place I go to, I have a backup for future reference of my experiences while I’m helping others to have valuable data. Second, we can learn from others how they experience life through their pictures and comments. Gmaps is endless as more and more people, aka the community, add valuable data to maps. And the owners of the places can learn and improve their places.
In México, the place I live, is so important to have accurate information, because is so hard to find places with wheelchair accessibility, good WiFi, card payment, pet friendly and other stuff.
These tools allow us to see the world differently, be prepared for it and most importantly for me, make time valuable!
P.S. The picture is of my dog “Simón”. He is old, and is difficult to travel with him because we never know for sure if he is going to be welcome to the places we go to.
