Tips for Enduring a Long Commute

For the last several years, I enjoyed a fairly easy commute to work each day. A straight 14 mile shot up the expressway and only a few blocks on city streets at each end, the trip usually took about 20 minutes, 30 on a bad day. Then, last fall my company announced a consolidation of offices and a few months later I found myself driving 50 miles in traffic each way to work.

I hate the drive. It takes anywhere from 50 minutes to 2 hours. There is always traffic, construction, insane drivers, and people sitting in the driver’s seat who appear to be doing everything except actually driving. Not to mention the disruption to my family life. There are days that I feel like I barely see my kids because I leave the house before anyone else is out of bed. Evenings seem to be a mad rush consisting of dinner, sports, music lessons, and then getting everyone to bed so that I can go to bed early enough to not be a zombie at 5:30 am. One of my challenges is leaving at just the right time to pick up my kids and get them to a scheduled activity like piano lessons. We may end up being 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late depending on how long it takes me to get to their daycare.

The image at the top of this article is an actual screen capture from Google Maps taken recently about the time I wanted to head home from work. The image doesn’t even cover my entire commute. Needless to say it took me a while to get home that day. Instead, I wish my commute looked more like this drawing my oldest did when he was 10. The irony is that I’m pretty sure he drew this in the car on one of our long trips to visit family.

Putting 500-plus miles a week on my car I now find I have at least 10 hours a week behind the wheel that I’ve been trying to make the best of, rather than just listening to music. Here I would like to offer up some tips on how I’ve been surviving my commute. I try to take advantage of the technology available since I have a relatively new car with things like USB inputs, Bluetooth, etc. as well as a smartphone. I could live without most of the gadgetry on the car, but I have to have my smartphone.

First, a few things to have on hand that make life easier:

1. A cellphone holder that mounts to the windshield with a suction cup. I can’t live without this.
2. A GPS application running on your phone like Google Maps or Waze. (I’ve tried both and prefer Google Maps)
3. Water - I always fill up my water bottle just before I leave home in the morning and before I leave the office in the afternoon. Sometimes I fill up two of them.
4. Snacks - I pack my lunch almost every day and usually end up eating my carrots on the way home. We also keep granola bars in our car. They are there mainly for the kids but I find myself eating one on the way home more often than I probably should.

Next, suggestions on what to listen to:

1. News/Talk Radio Shows - There is a popular radio program called Bob and Tom that I like to listen to each morning and initially I planned on that to fill my drive to work. The first day that I drove to my new office though, that plan quickly went out the window about halfway to work when I lost the signal to the nearest station broadcasting it. For the next half hour I found myself scrolling through my preset stations several times before I gave up and listened to my iPod. I also listen to a fair bit of NPR and have also tried a few other morning radio programs.
   
2. Audio books - I get these from the library both in CD form and also through an app on my phone called Overdrive which allows me to check out books and audio books through my phone. Then I connect the phone to my car’s stereo system through Bluetooth. Go here to see if your local library allows you to check out items through Overdrive. Even if you don’t spend a lot of time in the car, checking out books in any format from your library is a great way to prevent the accumulation of more things in your house. How many of your books have you read multiple times anyway? I just finished listening to Marie Kondo’s second book Spark Joy and am also listening for the second time to the 5-disc set on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from Stephen Covey.
   
3. Podcasts - download them on iTunes or use a pod-casting app like Podcast Republic. Another trick I’ve learned is that I have a USB thumb drive that I download podcasts to and then just connect to my car. One of my current favorites is called The Portfolio Life from Jeff Goins. Jeff has a great website, podcast, and a couple of books that I highly recommend. I’m currently reading his newest book The Art of Work.
   
4. Pre-recorded radio programs - Several years ago my wife and I bought the entire Star Wars Radio Drama boxed set of CDs. This was a radio series created by NPR back in 1981 and contains a version of all three original movies in 29 episodes on 15 CDs. It’s currently only available through third-party sellers on Amazon but it’s available on iTunes. Incidentally, here’s an article about how the series caused the number of people listening to NPR to skyrocket when they launched the radio series. Another old radio series I’ve used to pass my time in the car is the BBC production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy also from the 1980s. The quality isn’t always that great and the story takes a very different path than the books or either version of the movie adaptation, but it is still a fun listen.

All of these things help me maintain my sanity most of the time, but the biggest piece of advice I could give to anyone would be to just try remaining calm behind the wheel and always pay attention to the road. I’m not always good at staying calm but I’m getting better and the things above help me to feel like I’m at least making all that time in the car somewhat productive. I also make a point to not let these things be a distraction. If I find myself getting lost in an audio book or podcast, I just pause it for a few minutes. Hopefully, someone else can make some use of these suggestions to make their drive more bearable. Let’s all work to cut down on the road rage. Read some articles from the American Safety Council about road rage and defensive driving at SafeMotorist.com.

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