5 Productive (and Less Productive) Ways to Spend Your Daily Commute

 

Do you have a fairly sizeable daily commute? Does your commute involve you being a passenger either through mass public transit, taxi, or rideshare? Are you looking for ways to spend that time more productively? Your daily commute doesn’t have to be seen as wasted time; instead, it can be essential to helping you achieve all your daily tasks. Here’s a look at some ways to make your commute as productive as possible and some pitfalls to avoid that will make it much less productive.

Catch Up on Emails

If one of the most time-consuming parts of your day is responding to emails, why not use your daily commute to get this done? Just think of all the emails you could go through before even arriving at the office. This will mean you’re able to get started on other jobs as soon as you get to your desk. The same goes for the afternoon/evening commute. Clearing out emails means less to deal with the following day.

Do You Have Reading to Do?

Is your job one that requires a lot of reading and reviewing on your part? If so, the commute can be the perfect opportunity as you won’t have people interrupting you. Just think how fast you can get through that content when you can devote your full attention to it.

Create Your Daily Task or To-Do List

Planning and prioritizing your day is an excellent way to stay organized and productive. This ensures nothing falls through the cracks or ends up late. Why not use your morning commute to make your daily to-do list? This will mean you’ll already have your game plan in place when you arrive at the office.

Give Yourself Some Downtime

For those who have a busy and demanding job and similar home life, the daily commute may end up being your only opportunity for downtime. If that’s the case, you want to be sure you make the most of it and do things that will be relaxing and enjoyable so they are productive in that sense.

Why not use your smartphone to enjoy some movie or television watching? You may not have the time to do this at home, so the commute is the perfect chance. Guilty pleasure options like the wildly popular gambling-themed content are always fun and energizing. These can wake you up and have you in a great mood by the time you get to work or arrive home at the end of the day.

Not the Time for Napping

Sure, it can be tempting to have a nap during your commute, but this is just about the least productive thing you can do. It doesn’t allow you to accomplish anything and sometimes it can leave you feeling even groggier when you wake up. This can spell disaster for the rest of your day or evening.

The daily commute is often out of your control, so why not look for ways to turn what may seem like a negative into a positive and make the most of it?