How Your Work Commute Impacts Your Productivity And What You Can Do About It
Raise your hand if you’re reading this article as you commute to work.
How accurate is it to say that you’re probably sick of commuting back and forth to work each day? Perhaps it’s even made you consider quitting your job.
Your daily work commute can have serious impacts on your mind and body health, as well as on your productivity at work. Commuting can hold you back from achieving your goals.
Keep reading to find out how commuting is affecting you, and what you can do about it.
How Commuting Affects Your Mind and Body
Spending significant amounts of time in transport before and after a long workday can negatively impact your overall health.
People who commute each day are more likely to have:
- Increased stress levels and higher blood pressure
- Frustration and tiredness throughout the day
- Lower life satisfaction
- Backaches and postural issues
- Increased anxiety and chance of depression
These are all serious health effects of commuting that can need to be addressed for your well-being.
How Commuting Affects Your Work Life
When you finally make it work after an hour of standing on a cramped train or sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, how do you feel?
Most commuters say they feel frustrated and stressed out by the time they make it to their desk.
And, knowing you’ll have to do it all over again at the end of the day is daunting. Employers know that they receive better work from employees who are well rested, inspired, and happy.
Your work commute could be causing your poor work performance.
What You Can Do About Your Work Commute
You don’t have to stay in this commute-work-commute cycle. Get ready to feel relieved by the following solutions to your commuting blues!
1. Use Your Time Wisely
So there’s no way around having to commute to work. Your best option is to make use of that commute time in the most productive way you can.
If you get to sit down on a train or bus for your commute, consider prepping your to-do list for the day ahead or planning for the phone meetings you have scheduled.
If you drive a car to work, you can use the voice recorder on your phone to verbally make notes of your ideas, or you could listen to a podcast about your industry.
Educating yourself is the best way to spend free time.
Use your commute to increase your value at work, learn a new language, or learn a new skill.
2. Suggest Schedule Changes
If you are working mainly from a computer at a desk, politely ask your employer if once or twice a week you can work from home.
Or, maybe you can occasionally only do half days in the office, the rest of the day from home.
As long as you still fulfill your daily work responsibilities and can participate in conference calls, working from home on your laptop allows you to skip the commute those days.
You could also suggest your workplace have flexible coming and going time frames. This will reduce the stress some commuters feel when their train is delayed or canceled and they have to find a new way to get into work.
3. Reschedule Your Day
Did you know that most people are a most productive first thing in the morning?
Most people say they’re most productive early in the morning before anyone else in their household is awake; it’s quiet, calm, and there are no distractions.
Stop wasting that productive time on your work commute by waking up earlier and getting a head start on your day.
Try waking up 1 hour earlier and doing your most important task right away.
Then, on your commute, you can feel relieved that you’ve already got an important task out of the way, or at least started.
You may be running late, but you’re ahead of the productivity game.
4. Consider Relocating
You love your job and your workplace. But, you don’t love the work commute.
This isn’t feasible for everyone, but if you’ve been considering moving closer to your job, now might be the right time.
Not only will it remove all the stress and health issues that come with commuting, but you’ll be able to spend more time doing what makes you happy since you aren’t spending two hours a day in traffic.
Moving closer to work can improve your quality of life, and your productivity at work.
There are tons of Meridian ID homes for sale right now for people who work in Idaho. If you commute to this region for work, it may be worth your time to check out the real estate market and make a move.
5. Find Your Happiness
Your mental health is so important to your productivity at work, and commuting can seriously affect that.
Plan one thing for each commute in advance that will lift your spirits.
It could be buying yourself a Starbucks gift card to get fancy drinks in the mornings this week. Or, you could plan to catch up with your friends over the phone who are also commuting at the same time.
You could even use commuting as your social media engagement time so that when you’re at work you’re not distracted by your notifications. Or, play a really fun game on your phone!
Whatever you do, try to find something positive to focus on and be grateful for. Attitude makes all the difference.
Ready to Make a Change?
Commuting to and from work every day can be a burden, but it doesn’t have to be.
Use the tips mentioned in this article to improve your work commute or change it altogether. You could spend your commute time being productive, or change how much time you spend commuting overall.
Interested in learning more ways to improve your productivity at work?
Check out our Work Life page to learn more ways to improve your workplace, your relationships, and your productivity.
