Seven Ways to Improve Your Career While Commuting To Work

June 28, 2007 By Matthew Paulson

For a lot of people, the time spent in the morning and evening come to and from work is wasted. Some people listen to the local talk station, others call their friends and associates. Did you know there are some productive things that you can do on your commute? You can even improve your career in the half-hour or so that it takes to get to and from work during rush hour. Here are some ways to help advance your career while on the way to and from work.

Enjoy an Audio Book – There are plenty of audio books available at your local library or through services such as Audible.com You can listen to audio books which directly relate your career, or topics such as personal growth and dealing with other people. You could also try to learn general productivity skills or maybe even learn another language. There are plenty of great things you can learn on the way to and from work if you take the time to listen!

Get a Jump Start On Your Day – On the way to work in the morning, get your mind ready for work. Think about the things that you want to accomplish at work today. Think through any difficult tasks that you might have coming up and consider ways for you to accomplish them. If you have any meetings, ponder about anything you might want to be sure gets discussed. If you get to work at 8:00 AM and know what you want to get done, you’ll be much more productive during the work day.

Have Breakfast – Don’t eat something really messy, but have something healthy in the morning, say a piece of fruit. It’ll provide you a nice boost of energy for the morning making you alert and allow you to accomplish much more.

Get Informed – I don’t suggest that you listen to “talking head” programs on the radio, but listening to some educational programming on NPR will definitely be beneficial. You’ll be more informed about the world around you which will give you a broader prospective about the business world.

Practice Public Speaking – Practice giving a speech as if you were standing on at a podium presenting something for work. Having strong oral presentation skills will be beneficial no matter where you’re working.

Plan Your Evening – What are you going to do when you get home? Come up with a list of tasks that you want to get accomplished when you’re home. Go ahead and take care of them right away and use the rest of your evening to relax and enjoy life! In the morning you’ll be ready to take on the world.

Record your thoughts – Use a voice recorder to record ideas and plans for the days ahead. Sometimes you’ll have your best ideas when you’re on the way to work. Having a voice recorder ready to go will ensure that you remember the ideas and have them available when needed.

Posted in work