12 Steps to a Productive Driving Commute
We'll preface this blog entry with a reminder that, when driving, your hands should be on the wheel and your eyes on the road. Distractions can be deadly.
But just in case you're a rebel-rousing soul like the gang here at Jobacle.com, and find yourself incessantly fiddling with the radio dial and heat controls, we've come up with a few ways to maximize your driving commute. We'll tackle other form of commuting in the future - but for now - here's how to be productive on four wheels.
- Meditate. Deep circular breathing. Inhale through your nose for 3 seconds. Hold for 3 seconds. Exhale evenly for 3 seconds.
- Observe.
"I think we can enjoy the red light; we can also enjoy the stop sign. Every time we see it we profit: instead of being angry at the red light, of being burned by impatience, we just practice breathing in, breathing out, smiling." -Thich Nhat Hanh
- Educate yourself via podcasts, audio books, or even learn a language. Even as white noise, all of these things can make you smarter (including our podcast!).
- Keep an audio blog. Whether it's public or private it will help you get to know yourself a whole lot better. Digital audio is cheap, boundless, and tiny, Use services such as K7.net for a free phone #. When you feel inspired, leave yourself a voice mail that will be automatically routed to your e-mail account for later listen.
- Self massage. No, not there. But there are plenty of pressure points you can use to relax yourself. Here's a good starting point. It's always better when someone does it for you - but you're still releasing tension and increasing a blood flow. Please note that all techniques on the above link will NOT work when you are driving.
- Recount your day - but don't "re-live" the negative. Think about how you acted and examine what you would like to see yourself do differently tomorrow. Learn from your mistakes and use this commuting time to become the person you want to be.
- Take a different route. Unless you work on a tiny island, there are probably 101 ways to get to work. Try a new one. Notice interesting houses. Rusty sheds. Odd yard work. Anything.
- Avoid traffic. I'm in NY and even I can find some relief from traffic jams. Alternative routes put YOU in control. I'm not saying to study an Atlas or invest in a GPS - but learning your area can help you avoid trouble spots. Many mapping tools now allow you to get directions and set routes to avoid.
- Exercise. YES, in your car! For those of you old enough, you'll remember those comic book ads where the scrawny kid would get sand kicked in his face by the big bad beach bully. Those ads were for Charles Atlas - a man who can still teach you how to get in shape without ANY weights. Try the free lesson on his site and the wise to "DYNAMIC-TENSION." You can even do it in the car!
- Play mind games. As a kid, my sis and I would play Traffic Bingo. And when that got old (after about two blocks) we'd see who could spot a Century 21 real estate sign first. It's silly - but why not give your mind a much needed break by playing some solitary games. A few possibilities are locating license plates from random states, search for three cars of the same color in a row or play the infamous driver/celebrity look alike game.
- A celluva time. We won't even waste the keystrokes urging you not to talk on the phone when you drive cause we know you'll do it anyway. So... use it for good - not gossip or idle chatter. Check your banking balance, make doctor's appointments or just call people and say, "Thank you. I love you."
- Follow the slowpoke. This is a calming game we've referenced on a previous podcast: find the slowest car and follow it. The goal is to try to NOT change lanes for as long as possible. You'll get where you need to go - and the slower you go - the more enjoyable the ride.
DO NOT: read, write, apply make-up, crochet, trim your nails, shave or pick any bodily cavity.
Now it's your turn! Leave your comments below on how to make a driving commute more productive. I'm especially excited to hear from Duane of the Commute Smarter blog with his ideas!
Andrew G.R.
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Reader Comments (8)
Thanks for the plug, I wasn't really sure how to jump in since this post is basically exactly what I talk about over there :).
If you limit it to the driving commute then it's pretty tough to stay productive. Even in the worst traffic I've tried setting up the laptop on the passenger seat to at least run some unit tests and other automatic things that don't require much keystroke, but it's near impossible to do the kind of attention context switching you need to do.
Absolutely positively get yourself a bluetooth headset for your cell phone. Once your hands are free from holding the darned thing you're more likely to relax when you're speaking, and pay better attention both to the road as well as to the other party. Once this is accomplished you'll find that you're more likely to go to the phone as a valid option - for instance if you've got an idea about something to do once you get to work, how about calling a coworker to get it started for you? Or calling one of those traffic services to find out whether you should plan to take the alternate route? (I've always found the tv traffic update in the morning to be pointless since by the time I leave the house and get to the highway it's likely to have changed substantially).
Pick podcasts that are of a length to complement your ride. You don't want to keep fiddling with the controllers, you want to put something on and enjoy it for the whole ride. I find that I prefer podcasts around 45 minutes in length. My driving commute is roughly half an hour. Also, regarding podcasts, I prefer to setup a jukebox style "new podcasts" playlist that will just keep moving through my stuff. I can't stand how the ipod breaks them out into folders where I have to keep saying "Ok, let's go find which podcast new episodes....ok, that one's over, let's go to the next one..." Better to do it like music and just have it keep playing unless I tell it otherwise.
Ok, gotta stop now and do some real work, I'll see if I can work up a full response post on my blog later this evening.
I used to use the Griffin iTrip, but broke two of them and was disappointed in their customer service(*). Now I use one from Belkin, which I'll admit is not as well designed, but it gets the job done and a lower price. Griffin toys are very expensive.
(*) When I broke one in a way that did not render it unusable (but was still annoying enough to merit repair) they said "Sure we'll replace it, just smash it and take a picture of the wreckage." I tried to explain that I listen to my iPod for hours every day and by making me smash a still functional one that meant no ipod for me for days until I got the new one. They didn't care. So when it broke again, I gave up.
Huh? If you've got time, who would choose do that in a car? You'd be surprised. With three kids in my house getting ready for school, there's no way I can get the peace and quiet of a morning email scan until I'm out of the house. And if I'm early for my train, where is my time better spent - standing on the platform doing nothing (except listening to podcasts, of course), or sitting in my car, listening to the radio and fixing a few bugs before shutting down the laptop?