Are you an entrepreneur or a full-time employee with a side gig? You must commute every day. Unfortunately, a journey to work is a daily grind for many of you. The love-hate relationship with commute continues to exist, and when you can do nothing about it, how can you make the most of it? According to data, nearly 3.5 million people spend two hours a day traveling to and from the workplace, and this equates to a sufficient number of working days a year.
As an entrepreneur, you may or may not have too much work to do, so you may not bother about commute because you may have a team of people at your command. However, if you are a full-time employee or handling a side business alongside, you would certainly get hacked off by long traveling. You can complete most of your work and avoid killing your sleeping hours in order to meet the deadline.
While prices are hitting through the roof, people are grabbing side hustles to have more money coming in so as to make ends meet. Unfortunately, for many of you, having side gigs mean killing your bedtime. Many of you wish they do not have to spend this much time commuting to the workplace. You cannot avoid traveling, but you can make these hours productive. Here are some useful tips:
Do work that you can do even with flaky internet
If you have a long journey on a train, you do not need to waste time with flaky internet. Instead, you should focus on doing work that does not require complete internet focus or less connectivity. Whether you are to review an essay submitted by your student or you need to peruse the presentation prepared by your employees to pitch a new client, you can spare this time for such tasks.
Like many, your day may also start with a morning ritual of responding to loads of email queries of your customers or clients. You can complete this task when you are on the train. You do not even need stable internet to compose the email. You can hit the send button when you get to the office. Though you may not be able to finish the whole task, it is a better utilization than just surfing the internet or scrolling the gallery up and down to pass the time.
Being able to do most of your tasks during the journey will let you have enough hours to go off when you come back home, so you find yourself recharged. Studies have reported that sufficient sleep makes you more productive. If you have worked late at night, you can utilize the traveling time to nod off to refresh your mind. Just close your eyes and place your head on the headrest. You will feel relaxed or less exhausted.
Review your priorities
Before you get to your workplace, you should know what you are supposed to do. Knowing beforehand what you are to do will help you get to work right away, but in reality, everything beckons – emails, meetings, and colleagues, not to mention work you are to do for that day. Here comes in panning. With proper planning, you can stay organized in your office and be able to complete your task within working hours, so canceling the need for overtime, which results in having enough time for your side gig project.
You can review your priorities at the time of your commute. Try to make a schedule of what you will do first. If you have got a lot of work for a day that you think you will not be able to complete, try to spare the evening time for a project least important. In case you leave it pending, you can complete it the next day.
Utilize this time for research and brainstorming
Learning is essential even if you do not have a side gig or you are simply a boss who commands employees to get the work done. In the office, you may have to review the performance of your employees, call for an urgent meeting, discuss with managers what to be done next, and so on. You need a lot of energy and freshness to be able to do such work.
Therefore, it is crucial to keep yourself away from all distractions you will likely come across while traveling. Sometimes you may need to utilize commute time to relax and meditate. Use noise-canceling headphones to cancel out a baby crying, a woman talking loudly on the phone or with someone else, or a guy munching chips sitting next to you.
However, when you are in high spirits, you can use this time to learn. It is important to stay updated on what is happening in the world. Try to get some updates relevant to your industry. For instance, if you have an online lending business providing 5,000-pound loans for bad credit, you must know the borrowing trend in the UK while the cost crisis. Market research is vital to figure out what you can do to ensure your business does not get affected.
Likewise, you can get a lot of ideas for your side gig. For instance, if you work as a freelance content writer after completing your full-time job, you can do some research about the project you have got to do. You can make some pointers, so you do not have to devote a lot of time to complete them.
The final comment
You can make your daily commute more productive, whether you are an entrepreneur or a full-time employee, along with a side business. This will help you tackle the work pressure boldly and smoothly. Commuting is tiring, but you will wonder how much time fleets you by when you utilize it for some productive work. Use this time to research, set priorities, handle emails, review the presentation, and relax if you could sleep the previous night.