Living in a big city has its advantages, one of which is easy access to employment. Most people who live in cities have a short commute.
In fact, it’s possible you can ride a bike to work or even a scooter while wearing the right safety gear. You can be at work in a matter of minutes.
There are downsides to city living that lead many to leave, however. The downsides can include high taxes, small living spaces, and limited outdoor areas.
If you leave the city or live far from your employer, you have to commute. Daily commutes can be draining and stressful and take away from time you could enjoy your family or other parts of your life.
While no one loves a commute, if it’s a necessity for you, you can at least try to make the most of it.
The following are a few tips to maximize your work commute.
Meditate
If you take public transportation for your commute, why not use the time to meditate?
Meditating is something that’s challenging for most of us to master because it’s incredibly difficult to turn your brain off and put it into that quiet place required for meditation.
If you do make meditation part of your life, it can help reduce mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression.
If you do it each morning on the train or bus, it can help you get in the right headspace for the rest of your workday so you can be more focused and energized.
If you drive to work, don’t do your meditation when you’re behind the wheel. It will take your focus off the road and can be dangerous.
If you do drive for your commute, while you might not be able to dive into meditation, you can work on deep-breathing exercises. These can be especially helpful if you find yourself getting stressed and frustrated when you’re driving.
Learn a New Language
There are a lot of great ways to learn a new language and plenty of reasons to do it. It can keep your brain active and engaged, and it may even help you boost your career.
If you commute, you can listen to language-learning recordings each morning and evening to improve your skills.
Record Your Goal and Thoughts
If you’re behind the wheel for your commute, you can’t journal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t brainstorm and record your thoughts and feelings. You can dictate using a voice assistant. Create your to-do list, set small and big goals for yourself, or strategize for your day.
You can start to clear your head for the rest of the day, or set your intentions for the following day if it’s your evening commute.
Manage Your Emails On Public Transportation
Another option if you take the train or bus to work (but not if you drive) is to manage all your emails. This way, when you get to work, you don’t have to start your day by going through all of them.
Set a schedule so that you only manage most of your emails in the morning or evening hours of your commute, and use your time in the office for higher-level tasks or more strategy-based work.
The less often you’re checking your email during the day, the more productive you’ll be.
Listen To Industry-Related Materials
An important component of advancing your career is being immersed in your industry, being innovative, and staying ahead of industry trends.
Make your commute the time you catch up on things like podcasts and webinars related to your industry.
If there are industry-specific publications that you have access to, you can either read those if you take public transportation or listen if you drive.
Finally, why not listen to audiobooks?
The audiobooks can be fun and entertaining, or you might listen to personal development audiobooks during this time.
It’s important to reframe how you think about things you view as negative in your life. Rather than thinking of your commute as something you dread, start to reframe your thoughts and see your commute as a time you can spend with yourself and your thoughts.
Make it a time when you can clear your head or do the things you look forward to but don’t have time to do once you get in the office.
Once you can see your commute in a more positive light, it can become a reward instead of a punishment.