Manage Your Commute!
/This blog is the genesis of a daily activity I partook in for a year and a half. I’m not alone either. There are tons of articles out there about how many people, commute how far etc. Commute times have actually crept up a minimal amount the past 6 years after decreasing for 7 years.
I grew up in Delaware where I didn’t feel like a commute was uncommon. My parents each commuted at least 1 hour each way throughout most of my childhood. So I thought that’s just what people do - commute. I commuted in Portland (1 hour), Sacramento (45 minutes) and then the Bay Area (1 hour and 1.5 hours) all of that one way. I learned pretty quickly if I was going to commute, then I’d better maximize the time. So if you commute here are some tips to get the most out of it!
A real life IG Story I posted last December!
Pick a marker - In the Bay Area, the Palo Alto stop on Caltrain was my “marker”. It was about halfway between my origination and destination. On the way to work, I’d do NO WORK until I hit Palo Alto. On the way home, I’d work until I hit Palo Alto. That stop marked a physical break from me between work and home.
Monday Mornings - I did the same thing every Monday on my commute after my marker. I looked at my calendar for the week and wrote out the top 5 things I needed to accomplish that week no matter what.
Managing my intake - Commuting times were my email times. Even if I didn’t have service, I’d try to draft as many “must respond to” emails as possible. My goal was also to complete those emails during my commute in and my commute home.
Focus on SOMETHING. - Raise your hand if you’ve started reading something and your mind wandering off or you started a podcast then found yourself having no idea what the podcast was about. Yeah, that’s because we suck at focusing. So I wanted to train myself to focus on something. I’d either read or listen to a podcast for a set amount of time each day on my commute. I stuck to 10 minutes because that was feasible for me. If your whole commute is 10 minutes, try to maybe just listen intently to a podcast for 5 minutes.
If you need to sleep, sleep. - I am not a morning person and sometimes that walk to the train station, waiting for the train and picking my seat didn’t wake me up. So I slept. However, I always made sure I slept till that marker to keep my commitment to my routine.
So maybe you read my tips and were like cool Cherizza but I drive. Well during your drive are you just mindlessly listening to music, cursing that you’re heading to work or thinking about nothing at all? The point of this is to get focused in the morning so you can have the best chance at a successful workday or work week.
Can you find a time in your commute where you say “When I get to this light, I will start thinking about what I want to get done today” or “I am going to focus on this book on tape for the next 7 minutes” or “ Tomorrow morning I am going to get up early to do X”. Whatever you decide, commuting doesn’t have to be time wasted. It can be time you use to help yourself.
