Very good question! I can't speak to driving heavy machinery, and of course, traffic conditions vary widely. When I drive a personal automobile, I don't do noting (with words), yet often do work to increase (broaden and make more specific) awareness, by noticing various parts of my body--only after first working on noticing more intently the various aspects of the road conditions in various lanes, the vehicles closeby and their behaviors, the vehicles far ahead and far behind, lighting conditions and signs, etc, all with rapid re-attention to the vehicle directly in front of me. And I do this with a sense of the idea: "If I'm paying more attention than usual, the drive is safer."
Of course, exhausting oneself is not the goal, so doing this all with a sense of relaxed attentiveness is the goal. It's a mindfulness practice I learned from a Buddhist philosophy professor ages ago, and includes noticing flows of emotion. At first, I could only do tiny parts of it at once, yet gradually it became 'natural'. I do forget to do it quite a bit these days, so thank you for reminding me to get back to it!
All the Best,
Hillary
