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7 Ways to Harness the Potential of Your Commute

Don’t Waste Time Commuting.

I have recently gone from a commute of less than 20 minutes walk to over an hour’s drive each way. That has led to me wanting to find ways to make use of that time. Here are 7 suggestions to use the time you spend commuting more productively.

Turn Netflix into an Audio Books

Bear with me here. If you have Netflix you can choose many programmes and films with an “audio described” version. Including Peaky Blinders, Brooklyn 99, and After life. Takes a bit of getting used to but can be fun. you need a dialogue-heavy programme. That way you can listen along.

Making Netflix into audionbook

Work

If you are not a fan of “working” on a tablet or phone invest in a little Chromebook so you can carry it around and sort your emails etc. If you are a Google Docs user then you can work and it will sync automatically.

Escape

Noise-cancelling headphones can help you block interruptions and use your time on the bus or train to escape into a good playlist. I have found Amazon Prime Music to be really easy for quickly building playlists that you can download and listen to (Save your data).

Relax

Indulge in some self-care or mindfulness. There are many apps now that can guide some meditation or calming activities.

headspace app commute.png

Listen to audiobooks

The Libby app is awesome if you are a member of any library you put in your details and can borrow any book in their catalogue. If the one you want is out you can even put a hold on it and you will be notified when it is available!

Listen to Podcasts – So many available and most are free using apps supplied with most phones these days. This page has a good list of the 30 best education podcasts.

Read during your Commute

Just use it to read a book, not if you are driving of course! Again use the Libby app to borrow ebooks from your local library.

Dictate documents during your Commute

Most phones have the capability to convert speech to text. If you use google docs or even notes or Evernote, just click the microphone next to the keyboard and talk away.  It can take a while to get used to so practice before you start driving and don’t edit until you stop! Here are some common voice commands that help with editing.

A quick guide to dictating Documents on a smartphone.

You can add punctuation by saying what you want. For example, “Hello Peter comma the book is in the drawer exclamation mark” becomes “Hello Peter, the book is in the drawer!”

Here are some common punctuation and formatting commands:

  • Quote/end quote: begin and end a quote
  • New paragraph: start a new paragraph
  • New line: begin a new line
  • Cap: capitalize the next word
  • Caps on/caps off: capitalize the first character of each word

Can you suggest any better ways to use the time spent commuting? let me know in the comments below.

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