Logistics of Toast

I can’t help applying logistics to my everyday life. When I travel to London I walk along the platform at Epsom until I get to the different coloured platform stone which is where one of the train doors will stop allowing me to get on near the end of the train so that when I arrive at Vauxhall, I get off next to the stairs.

I then walk into the underground and turn left into the tunnel and walk along the platform until I get to the white painted square. This is the ideal location for getting out beside the stairs at Warren Street.

A colleague of mine once said ‘What’s the point? You have to do the same amount of walking wherever you get on the train and tube.’ But he was missing the point (and should have known better as our role at work was designing journey planning algorithms).

My approach doesn’t optimise distance, it optimises time. It’s not that I’m in a rush to get to the office, it just feels like the right thing to do.

I’m the same in the kitchen, although it is distance that I optimise in there. When I’m working at home the daily routine starts by filling the bread machine and making a cup of coffee.

The kettle, bread machine, measuring jug and spoon, coffee and sugar are at one end of the kitchen (point A) and the weighing scales, flour, yeast, salt and margarine are at the other (point B). The sink is in the middle (point C). So without consciously thinking about it over the past few years I’ve optimised my routine as follows:

1.       Start at A. Pick up kettle.

2.       Walk to C. Fill kettle.

3.       Walt to A. Return kettle and turn it on. Take the bowl out of the bread machine and pick up measuring jug and spoon.

4.       Walk to B. Take weighing scales out of cupboard. Add yeast, flour and salt.

5.       Walk to A. Take sugar out of cupboard.

6.       Walk to B. Add sugar and margarine.

7.       Walk to A. Return sugar and while cupboard door is open, retrieve cup and add coffee.

8.       Walk to C. Fill measuring jug with water.

9.       Walk to B. Add water. Pick up bowl, measuring jug and spoon.

10.    Walk to A. Put bowl in bread machine and turn it on. Return measuring jug and spoon to their home. Pour boiling water on coffee. Pick up coffee.

11.    Walk to B. Put weighing scales back in cupboard.

As well as optimising my distance travelled I’ve also optimised some of my time because I don’t have to wait for the kettle to boil because I’m busy filling the bread machine.

Note: In the summer the distance travelled is slightly further because the margarine is kept in the fridge.

If I draw the above as a diagram you can see that it isn’t the most optimal distance:

If the distance from A to B and then B to C is 1 then the total distance is 16. Steps 4 to 7 involve two trips between points A and B which could be reduced to one, decreasing the distance to 14. However, I can’t carry the bread machine bowl, measuring jug, measuring spoon and the sugar all at once.

If this exercise was like an old text adventure game on a computer where you could carry as much as you liked in your inventory then I could reduce the distance to 6 by collecting things from A, carrying them to B and collecting everything else, walking to C to get water, walking to A to make the coffee, fill the bread machine and put half the things away before walking to B to put everything else away. However, I might end up waiting for the kettle to boil if it takes longer than it does to fill the bread machine and put half the things away.

Despite what you might think after reading the above, I don’t optimise every activity in the kitchen. If I was toasting three slices of toast under the two slice capacity grill I think I’d do it in four goes instead of the optimum three.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to add logistics to my life without realising it. When my train arrives at Vauxhall the majority of the people in my carriage get off and when I’ve ridden in the front carriage (the ideal place for getting off at Waterloo) I’ve observed very few people get off at Vauxhall, so I’m clearly not alone.