Find Your Pocket of Freedom to Make Long Trips More Bearable
Coming to work is frustrating because it makes us feel like we have no control over them. You are either on a bus or train, or in a car crawling along the freeway. But if you focus on what you can control, time spent at and from work can be the best and most rewarding part of your day.
Researchers at Harvard Business Review invite you to look at this travel time from a different perspective to make the most of your travel time . It doesn’t have to be a waste, as you might see it. You may be limited while walking from home to work and vice versa, but the time itself is still yours . You can read a book or listen to a podcast, or better yet, treat it like a Ph.D. the great-aunt of candidate Yon M. Jachimovich would call it “the pocket of freedom” :
We borrowed the phrase “pocket of freedom” from Adela, the great-aunt of one of us (Jon), whose early adult years were spent in various Polish ghettos during the Nazi occupation. No matter how hungry, tired, or scared she was, every night she devoted one hour of creative activity with her niece – a practice she later noted helped her to keep practicing. While the stakes on commuting are much less significant, you too can make this time more bearable by thinking of it as an opportunity to pursue your hobbies.
Adela’s survival strategy, while born out of much more serious struggles than any commute, is still useful advice for all of us and backed by science. Research has shown a correlation between higher levels of autonomy and higher levels of well-being over the years. Being able to choose how you use your time often leads to greater satisfaction, productivity, and less stress throughout the day. You see, it’s not so much what you do with these “pockets”, but in the fact that you choose to take control and do something.
Every ride is an opportunity, so see it as a blessing, not a curse. You’ve been given a little bit of freedom to get creative, pursue a passion, learn a new skill, or listen to soothing music so you can relax before heading home to your busy family. How will you use your “freedom pockets”?