The average UK commute gives British travelers 225 spare hours to kill every year. Here's how you can help yourself to make the best use of that time.
According to research conducted by analysts at ethical car recycling company Scrap Car Network, one in four commuters dedicate their journey time to self-education. And since the average British commuter spends a total of 58 minutes traveling to and from work every day. That works out to about 225 hours or nine uninterrupted days of otherwise unused time. Many commuters choose to use this free time for self-learning new skills, broadening their expertise, or organizing their professional or personal life. If you’re planning similar activities for your commute - or you’ve already started - here are some of the best ways you can maximize your productivity.
Apps
1. Evernote
A particular favorite of professionals and businesspeople, Evernote is a cloud-based software service that’s designed to help you create, organize and store various types of media files. The app is similar in principle to services like Google Drive and Dropbox, but one way it distinguishes itself is that it’s designed to be a complete virtual filing system, rather than limited to a specific type of file. It enables you to easily find and update to-do lists and shopping lists, just as easily as you can add notes to work assignments or collaborate with colleagues using live chat windows. As far as organization is concerned, its offering is almost unrivaled.
2. Trello
Alongside Evernote is Trello, which is marketed as a visual tool for organizing and prioritizing your projects in a “fun and flexible way”. It’s essentially a virtual whiteboard, allowing you to create, organise and eliminate digital Post-It notes that might contain text, photos or other attachments. It’s great for checking the status of projects or campaigns at a glance, making it another key favorite in the professional marketplace.
Equipment
3. Noise-canceling headphones
Invaluable for rush-hour commuters, noise-canceling headphones can help you get around arguably the biggest downside of public transport: the noise. If you’re trying to concentrate on a project, concept or task, the technology can protect you from the constant chatter, loud announcements, and the pinging of doors. However, you’ll have to make sure you look up from time to time so you don’t miss your stop!
4. Pen and paper
While modern smartphones offer all sorts of enhanced functionality for creative or work-related endeavors (including the apps we’ve touched on above), there’s a certain purity in using a pen and paper to make your own notes or begin sketching the genesis of a creative idea. It also means that whether you’re planning your day, working on your novel or making language notes, you’re less likely to be distracted by push notifications or incoming messages via your phone, and your progress isn’t hampered by slowdowns, crashes or even data loss.
Techniques
5. Timeboxing
We’ve all had to work on a seemingly never-ending task in a while, one whose finish line just seems to be endlessly just out of reach. Timeboxing is a working technique developed to help you deal with just these sorts of never-ending projects. Essentially, it involves completing a large task in multiple separate, fixed units of the allotted time.
This means that rather than working the project continuously until it’s done, you can divide it into - for example - four fifteen-minute segments, with short breaks in between. (This style of working is especially well-suited for train journeys, with their fixed travel times.) One of the main benefits of this is that it forces you to prioritize the most important aspects of the task, and helps you to effectively measure your progress towards the key objectives.
6. Pomodoro Technique
Closely related to the concept of timeboxing is the Pomodoro Technique. Its founder advocates the use of a timer to break down the work into short intervals, generally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each of the working intervals is known as a Pomodoro. Every time you complete one Pomodoro, put a checkmark on a piece of paper. If you have fewer than four of them, take a break of between 3 to 5 minutes, then get right back to work. After four Pomodoros, you can take a longer break of between 15-30 minutes, then reset your check count and begin again.
Now, unless you’ve got a huge commute, you probably won’t get to four checkmarks in a single sitting, but the benefits are still clear; for example, you can manage distractions more easily by simply delaying them until the next available break (which is never far away). This is designed to help you stay motivated, and focused on the task at hand.
Both of these techniques encourage regular evaluation, helping you to measure your progress towards completion by setting clear goals to achieve in the available time. It’s part of why they’re both so effective at helping you use your commute to break down even seemingly mammoth tasks like learning a new language or learning to code; both of which were highlighted as amongst the most popular and productive uses of time.
Top comments (0)