The Rules of Commuting
Commuting is one of those things that so many people do every day in order to get to work, this is the most obvious statement I could write to open up this article. But what people don’t always adhere to are the rules of the commute, especially by train.
The rules are few and simple and you have to make a decision on which rules to follow in order to make your commute the most suitable for your time. Wether it is the morning or evening the rules are the same and can help you either have the best of times (given the situation) or the worst times (also given the situation).
For this example I am going to use a commute by train as my catalyst and will sprinkle in some automobile insight into the mix. I mainly commute by train hence why the train comes first in my book.
1) Either find a friend or hunker down for a solo journey. This is all up to you and your personality, if you are outgoing and would find the ride more enjoyable talking with someone try to find that person or group that matches up with you. Trust me they are there, it will just take some time and an outgoing hello for you to slide right in and join a conversation, these people are usually excited to find another one of their own.
Now if you are like me this is going to either be your quite time or your time to work on things that are meaningful to you. In this case you want to approach your commute with your head down, get to a seat and set yourself up fast so people can see that you are trying to get shit done. Now this does not mean you need to be unfriendly, you just need to be cautious of who you smile and nod at as to not give the wrong impression.
If by chance you do give the wrong impression there are ways out of it, either slowly back off your niceness and get back to what I stated above or do some switching of train cars as to avoid the person for a bit. After a short time you should be able to return to your regularly scheduled program and have someone to nod to once in a while.
2) Depending on the length of your commute you may want to pack snacks! This can make or break your mood when you arrive to your destination. If you are traveling anything over a half an hour I suggest bringing some kind of snack just in case you get feel the wave of hunger come over you. You will thank me when you arrive at your destination ready to go instead of taking the time to search for something to eat.
3) If you are a solo rider you will want to bring something to occupy your time, be it work (I highly advise not to work on the train); preferably your side hustle, a movie to watch, a book to read or if you are really burnt out from the day you always have YouTube that you could dive into.
4) Patience would be the next thing one need to have when commenting. You have to remember whether you are in a car or on a train you are the subject of your surroundings, you have no idea when the traffic may pick up or when a car accident may come into play. Or if you are on a train you never know what kind of mechanical issues may happen or what issues may occur with the track signals. You just have to roll with it and know that you will get to your final destination at some point.
5) Just try to have a good time, you are stuck on your way to someplace you may or may not want to be, in either case you are heading there, so try to do something that will make you happy. Try to arrive in a good mood and make the most out of your time on this planet.
Commuting can be an interesting and enjoyable time if you let it be, don’t fight the chaos, jump right in and let this part of the day take you where you ever it is you are going both physically, mentally and peacefully.
