The daily commute is a chore that many of us face, and for the vast majority of people, it may have also felt like the most inefficient time spent all the day. However, it doesn’t have to be. With some focus, planning, and preparation, your commute can become enjoyable and even productive. Rather than feeling like a waste of time, the most successful people view their commute as an opportunity for self-improvement, to become more efficient, or at least to relax and recharge. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some inspiration and ideas that, when followed, could drastically accelerate your personal career. The majority of these tips are for people who use public transportation, but some apply to drivers as well.
Listening to music on the way to work can be both relaxing and enjoyable, but listening to motivational or educational podcasts can get your mind focused and empowered to face the day. It is the mental equivalent of going for an early morning run; you end up full of enthusiasm and ready to face the day, even if it is a Monday. There are lots of shows to listen to, and the vast majority are entirely free. What have you got to lose?
Completing tasks is a great feeling and quickly becomes a positive habit that is beneficial both to you and your company. Before the start of every day, use your commute to plan out exactly what you want to achieve by the end of the day. Choose the tasks that need immediate attention to tackle first. By taking the time on your commute to establish your aims and objectives for the day, you will be much more focused and productive the second you walk into your place of work. Even on the commute home, take the time to evaluate your working day, and assess what went well or could have been improved. If you didn’t complete a particular task, place that at the top of tomorrow’s to-do list, so it gets completed quickly.
Email is becoming a daily drag rather than the productive tool it was envisioned to be. Although there are some strategies you can employ to better manage your email, the fact remains that you will still waste a lot of time dealing with it. If you are lucky enough to have access to your work email on your commute, use this time to quickly triage your inbox. When you walk into the office, your inbox will hopefully be empty, freeing up more time that would otherwise have been wasted. This will allow you to get ahead of the crowd, and also be very efficient and well organized.
Perhaps you have always wanted to learn a second language, but never seem to have the time. Well if your commute is an hour each way, then that gives you ten hours a week of dead time to utilize. There are a large number of different apps and programs available that will teach you a second language. Research shows that there are other benefits to learning a second language, which might give you the motivation to get started.
The Pocket app is an excellent way for people to quickly and easily bookmark articles or items of interest that they want to read, but don’t have time to. Download the app, install the software, and then as soon as you see an item that interests you, send it to Pocket. Pocket excels for the commute, because it then downloads those articles in full to your device for reading offline.
There are so many positive ways to make use of your daily commute. Don’t waste it like the vast majority; embrace some of these ideas and you will be shocked at how much more productive you become.