Phone grocery hack, to save your diet and friendships

Discovered an obvious 'hack' optimization that I know a lot of people already apply but I hadn't gotten around to it because I always thought it was stupid or not feasible. It's not as much of a hack as really something people do to get things done. I don't want to build this up too much and set high expectations so here is what I'm talking about: calling friends and family during a grocery trip so the grocery trip is not dull, and you can get other things done in the time you'd have spent talking to them.

I discovered this two weeks ago when friend NG called me in my trip in Chinatown. I had nothing else going on so I talked to him throughout the trip and also almost during the return trip. We ended the conversation right as I was about to enter the train, and it was so well-timed I was really proud of myself. Then last week the same happened when I was at Wegman's. I was walking around rather aimlessly when I got his call, the trip was pretty low-stress and I did get a lot of talking done too. I was beginning to understand what a great idea it was.

So today when I went to Wegman's again to return a light that wasn't working -- I got a replacement and it works perfectly now -- I remembered the last trip and called him. The first thing he asked was if I was doing groceries to which I replied in the affirmative, and that's how he was onto my scheme! We talked for a solid hour while I wandered around the aisles aimlessly not looking for anything particular. I probably walked around the store thrice but I do like Wegmans and the conversation was a great one so it was all good times. In the end I didn't end up carrying a lot of groceries, but I could focus strictly on my home chores back home and nothing else. It ended up working out really well in the end.

I wonder what other times I can optimize talking to people on the phone around. I know talking during commute is a big no-no -- I get annoyed at people who are talking on the phone in the bus, and...that's it? I don't really spend a lot of time not doing anything requiring bare mental attention like grocery-shopping, so not sure what else I can find. I guess biking could be an option, but I'm not sure if taking away attention from the road into the call is such a good idea. Gotta work more on it, find out times to multitask and call people during besides the grocery trips.