How to deal with a long commute

Do you have a long commute to work? Are you wondering how you will deal with this change? Perhaps these tips will help you.

I had a commute of 1 hour 10 minutes spread over between 2-4 buses per trip every day until I moved closer to work. However, now my husband has a similar commute for him to get to work with our new house so I decided to write down all of my tips that I learned over the past three years.

The best tip that I can give you is to think of this time as "me" time. We call it my husband's "reading hour" instead of the word "commute". We are adding a positive connotation to this particular time of day instead of thinking of it negatively. I know that when I first started this long commute I thought that it was a terrible time waster but then I learned how to knit. Now, I can't do without that hour to and from work every day because it's the only time that I knit during the day. Talk about a positive turn around!

Our other tips include:

• Listen to audio books or read a book. Buy all of the books that you've been saying that you want to read (I found all of mine second hand) and read them one by one. When I lived in Montreal I read over 29 books in two years while commuting on the metro - I kid you not.
• Listen to music
• Play games on a portable mobile device like an mp3 player, if you have one
• Listen to the radio on your portable mobile device. You may find that you really get into certain programs that play during this time.
• Listen to learn a language CDs to perfect another language
• Listen to podcasts on your mp3 player or smartphone
• Watch a movie on your smartphone, if it has video capability.
• If you know someone in the bus, sit with them and talk. You may develop a really good friend!
• Read a magazine or even better - save your magazines that come in the mail for this specific time instead of reading them as soon as you get home. 
• Read the newspaper. My husband downloads the newspaper to his portable device every morning and reads his newspaper online every day. This saves a lot of paper for us and keeps him sane.
• Check your social networks on your mp3 player, if you have downloaded the apps for that. Just like the magazine, you could reserve this time as the only times that you check them
• Carpool with work friends and talk.