Ways to Make Your Commute Time More Productive

  • 1 min read

According to studies, as the commute gets longer, individuals become more stressed, anxious and less happy. Commutes affect our wellbeing because we cannot control how our commute will be. Will there be any delays? Will the subway be crowded? Will the weather be bad? These questions can go on. Especially, commutes longer than 30 minutes with public transportation found to be the most negative one by researchers. Commuting also affects your sleep quality because the longer the commute, the earlier you wake up and therefore, get less sleep. Plus, if there is traffic in your commute, then, you come to work already exhausted and stressed. However, there are several things you can do to make your commute more productive and less stressed. Below you can find some of them.

  • Listen to Audiobooks or Podcasts: If you want to improve your personal skill set or just stay up-to-date with current news, podcasts and audiobooks are great options for you. They also help boost your energy for the day in addition to grow your mindset. There are many different options such as business, tech, arts, science, politics, comedy and etc. You can try different genres each month and diversify your portfolio.
  • Make Your to Do List: If you are commuting with public transportation, one of the best things to do is to write down your to do list. In this way, you can be prepared when you get to work and know where to start for the day. Don’t worry if you are driving to work, you can still make your to do list with the help of personal assistants in smart phones or using speech to text apps. You can talk out loud in the car and your smart phone can write it down for you. Making a to-do list beforehand makes you more productive and once you accomplish those tasks, you feel happier and more successful.
  • Rehearse Your Speeches: Perhaps you have an important meeting or presentation that day, then practice your speech in the car. This can help you get prepared in advance and also, makes you feel more confident when you are in front of others giving your speech. If you are using public transportation for commuting to work, this can be harder to do but at least you can pretend that you are speaking and just move your mouth. Another option might be taking notes about what you want to talk in your speech so you don’t forget important points.
Picture of Ceren Cubukcu

Ceren Cubukcu

Ceren Cubukcu is a top 5 bestselling author of Make Your American Dream A Reality: How to Find a Job as an International Student in the United States. She recently founded her consulting business to help more international students find jobs in the US in addition to her self-service digital event ticketing platform, Etkinlik Fabrikam (My Event Factory), to offer her webinars. 

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

I’m 66 and if I could go back I wouldn’t change the career or the marriage or the house — I’d change the morning routine, specifically the 25 years of waking up and immediately reaching for the list of things I had to do instead of lying there for five minutes and asking myself what I actually wanted to do, because the man who starts every day in obligation eventually forgets that desire was ever an option, and by the time the obligations end the wanting muscle has atrophied completely

I’m 66 and if I could go back I wouldn’t change the career or the marriage or the house — I’d change the morning routine, specifically the 25 years of waking up and immediately reaching for the list of things I had to do instead of lying there for five minutes and asking myself what I actually wanted to do, because the man who starts every day in obligation eventually forgets that desire was ever an option, and by the time the obligations end the wanting muscle has atrophied completely

Global English Editing
I stopped drinking two years ago and the hardest part wasn’t the cravings or the social awkwardness — it was realizing that most of my friendships were built entirely around shared consumption and nothing else

I stopped drinking two years ago and the hardest part wasn’t the cravings or the social awkwardness — it was realizing that most of my friendships were built entirely around shared consumption and nothing else

Global English Editing
I’m 66 and I’ve stopped explaining to my children why I’m selling the house, traveling alone, or skipping holidays — because living life to the fullest means I no longer need my choices to make sense to anyone but me

I’m 66 and I’ve stopped explaining to my children why I’m selling the house, traveling alone, or skipping holidays — because living life to the fullest means I no longer need my choices to make sense to anyone but me

Global English Editing
I noticed my wife started saying ‘I’m going to bed’ instead of ‘we should go to bed’ and that one word change — from we to I — made me realize how long we’ve been operating as individuals instead of a couple

I noticed my wife started saying ‘I’m going to bed’ instead of ‘we should go to bed’ and that one word change — from we to I — made me realize how long we’ve been operating as individuals instead of a couple

Global English Editing
I spent thirty years building a career so my wife could have security, and she spent thirty years raising our kids so I could focus on work — and now that both jobs are done, we’re sitting in an empty nest realizing we never actually built an ‘us’

I spent thirty years building a career so my wife could have security, and she spent thirty years raising our kids so I could focus on work — and now that both jobs are done, we’re sitting in an empty nest realizing we never actually built an ‘us’

Global English Editing
Psychology says the single biggest predictor of whether adult children respect their parents isn’t how much was provided for them — it’s whether their parents respected them as separate people with valid perspectives, even when those perspectives conflicted

Psychology says the single biggest predictor of whether adult children respect their parents isn’t how much was provided for them — it’s whether their parents respected them as separate people with valid perspectives, even when those perspectives conflicted

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore