How to optimise your commuting time

As the evolving workforce commands more workers to have improved skills, and career success increasingly lies in having a commercial edge over other employees, staff need to find more time in the day to increase their skills.

The average commuting time for Brisbane workers is about 48 minutes a day, according to one study by Melbourne University.

PKF Organisation Development director Scott Way says that regardless of whether the commute to work is walking, cycling, driving or on public transport, workers can use the time to develop their professional skills.

“If they’re just basically staring out the window, wishing the bus gets to the city faster, then they can be a bit more proactive about it,” Way says.

Professional studies can be incidental or conscious development and formal training or informal learning, he says.

“I’ll be listening to the radio and if they’re interviewing a client of mine, then I’ll send him an email saying `Well done, good job’,” Way says.

He says traditional study with books or documents is an option for passengers.

But improving technology is opening new ways of formal learning to a wider variety of commuters.

Podcasts provide aural development to walkers, drivers or public transport passengers while e-books can be read easily on tablet computers.

There also are a variety of mobile devices that passengers can use to connect to the internet and email, in many cases instantly transferring their desk duties to their bus or train.

“I very commonly see people with at least one earpiece shoved in an ear – it could be a podcast or ABC National or whatever,” Way says.

But he warns commuters to think about their safety when walking while reading documents, cycling while listening to information or talking to contacts while driving.

He says consciously avoiding work during the commute also can encourage work/life balance.

There is also the security warning too, as highlighted in CareerOne last week, to make sure any sensitive work-related documents viewed on any portable computing device cannot be seen by other passengers on any commute.

Using the time to switch off from daily work stresses can prevent their job from encroaching on their time at home.

“It can be rejuvenating,” he says.