Hate Commuting? How To Make The Most Of Your Train Journey

Time Travel Is The Answer.

Okay, Hands up, I don’t actually mean getting into a phone box and travelling to different time periods. What I mean is that the time you spend travelling to and from locations could be your key to upping productivity or recharging.

It doesn’t matter if you’re going to work, to meet friends or just trying to get home. Travel time can be the best time to catch up on all those little tasks.

I’m always travelling to various locations and areas of the UK. I don’t drive a car so my main option is to go via train. To me, It’s the perfect opportunity to get things done or recharge my batteries.

If I travelled everywhere by car, either as a driver or passenger, I wouldn’t be able to sleep or get anything done for fear of crashing the vehicle or appearing rude to the person driving. If I travel by train, a whole world of time opens up to me.

As a Virtual Assistant, I spend a lot of time working on offline projects like scheduling, planning and building content. The 4 hour train journey from London to ‘up north’ is a god send. I get to crawl into my moving office, put my ear phones in and become productive.

Here are my top tips for getting things done whilst travelling

1. Plan your journey - Know how long you have between destinations and train changes. Starting a 2 hour intensive project when you have a 45minute train ride isn’t going to boost productivity. If I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, I sometimes use this time to catch 40 winks. You’d be surprised by how a quick cat nap on the morning commute can fill you full of beans for the morning ahead.

2. Build your ‘to do’ list - Do this BEFORE you set off. Knowing what you want to get done before your journey will get you in to the right frame of mind. This can be a work related list or just planning what house work needs doing at the weekend.

3. Be realistic - If you get on the train and decide that you don’t want to work after all, that’s fine. Forcing a creative process will not produce your best work. Have a nap, read a book or why not try one of those stress relieving colouring books everyone is raving about. Adults can have fun too, you know?

4. Snacks - I always make sure I have access to some sort of food and drink. You may not be physically moving but your brain and body still needs to eat. Keeping yourself fuelled will increase your concentration and productivity. It will also help if the journey is particularly long. We all now how exhausted we feel after sitting on a plane for hours. It’s no different on a train. But remember to leave the tinned mackerel at home. No one wants to be “that” passenger.

5. Don’t rush things - You don’t have to race the train. Just using the time to minimise the work load, destress with some reading or catch up on some Zzz will be a great asset to you.

So next time you have to travel anywhere, think about what you’ll be able to achieve. You don’t need more hours in the day, you just need to use the time more wisely.