Reading time: 2 Minutes
The average commute takes 29 minutes – that means more than 227 hours of commuting every year. When Regus asked workers around the world how their commute made them feel, the short answer was stressed. Heavy traffic and crowded public transport irritate 82 per cent of workers, according to a recent Regus study, while 11 per cent are put off by other passengers’ ‘au naturel’ take on hygiene. We’ve put together our top tips for how to power up your commute and the apps to help you do it.
Love train
Too busy at work to have a social life and meet new people? Add some romance to your morning journey by looking for future flames. Dating app Spark uses a Bluetooth connection to link you with matches, so you can rack up crushes even when you’re underground.
Sweat it out
Walking avoids 100 per cent of commuter problems, including the average spend on transport of 3 per cent of your annual salary. But just 7 per cent of you walk to work. To up the ante, try cycling. If your office has showers, no sweat. If not, avoid unpleasant scents and a sweaty back by easing the pace and switching from a rucksack to panniers. Or look out for ‘cycle hubs’ with bike parking, lockers and showers.
Dodge the jams
Transport delays annoy 40 per cent of you. Stay up to date with travel apps like Citymapper or Waze and Google Maps for road traffic. There’s even research under way for a new app that will wake you up early if there are likely to be delays on your route. Cubic Transportation Systems, who invented London’s Oyster card, are developing the app to warn users “that there might not be a problem yet but by the time you normally travel there will be”.
Feed your mind
Give your brain some sustenance to avoid the irritation of people talking too loudly on their mobiles, which gets to 19 per cent of you. Podcasts and books are a great place to start – 17 per cent of people read on their way into work. Break up your day by downloading a professional podcast with Stitcher for morning motivation and some fantasy fiction via Audible to switch off on the way home.
Read all about it
Apps like Flipboard and Pulse collate news stories and Pocket lets you read them without an internet connection – 42 per cent of people choose to read the news as they commute. If that all sounds a little serious, apps like Texture and Zinio work like a digital newsstand to offer you your favourite magazines for some lighter reading material.
Give yourself more time
It might feel counter-intuitive but giving yourself 45 minutes to commute when you normally take 30 will give you space to breathe, rather than charging through the crowd, elbowing your way towards the ticket machine. And on that note, try using the Headspace app to incorporate some meditation into your daily grind. No rush means no stress, and no stress means your best commute yet.
