On Commuting

For the last four months, I’ve had a new commute route to my new office. The office is located in part of the city that probably I visited three or four times in my entire life. I had no reason to go there for leisure because it’s just so far away from where I live, and I haven’t mentioned the traffic.

So having to go back and forth every day to that area was something I never imagined I could do. But here I am, commuting for four hours a day, every day. My previous commute during college was much better. Since my uni located in the satellite city, I almost faced no traffic and I could take the train. My commute took 1 hour or 1,25 hour tops.

I’ve heard people saying that I’m crazy. Well, if you think about it, I spend 4 hours of my 24 hours every day on the bus. Yes, I’m crazy if I don’t put that 4 hours into use. That’s why I’ve been trying to find ways to improve my commute and/or making my commute more productive.

Actually, there nothing I could do to shorten the duration without paying more. My current commute is already the best option since I’m aiming for low-cost commute. So, what I can do is to make my commute more productive, right?

1. Podcasts. I’ve tried podcasts, and I love listening to them. It’s just that sometimes it’s still hard for me to listen to them without effort a.k.a. I doze off a lot. Is it because they’re in English, and I’m not really used to it…? I haven’t found that many good podcasts in Indonesian, either. Geez. I think I will write about podcasts in a separate post.
2. Journaling. I find that writing on the bus is quite enjoyable. I usually go for short essays (4 paragraphs tops) on my daily observations. Sometimes I also write work on my gratitude journal as it helps me a lot in coping with my skepticism and meta-impostor-syndrome.
3. Planning for the day. During my morning commute, I usually plan my work ahead. First, I check my calendar and then list the tasks that should be done that day.

I try so hard to avoid mindless scrolling because I know how detrimental it is to my mental health. So if the above plans fail, I rather listen to music. Or sleep, if happen to get a seat on the bus.

Hmmm. I’ve been thinking, maybe I should not only aim for productivity. Maybe I should also aim for maintaining social relations. What I mean is reconnecting to my friends by, for example, asking how they’re doing. Ughhh but these days I find texting hard. I’d rather meet them in person.

If you have tips to improve quality of commute, please do let me know.