Your daily commute is one of the most precious times of the day. Don’t waste your time with listening to music!
When I was in college, I would always drive from Los Angeles to Milpitas during the school breaks and holidays to see my parents. Back then, Spotify and other music streaming services didn’t exist. Heck, smartphones barely existed back then too. It wasn’t easy downloading thousands of our favorite songs and having them ready for us for the drive. We relied on CDs and good company to keep us entertained during our journey.
We even had a routine, use the radio until we get to the mountains, then use the CD until we get to Gilroy.
But since then, I realized that we spend so much of our day driving. Why don’t we spend that time more efficiently? Instead of listening to music in my car, I either listen to something educational like podcasts, seminars, and audio books, or I just sit in silence!
Brian Tracy one said that your car is a University on wheels. If your daily commute (both ways) is like the typical worker, you’ll be spending 1-2 hours driving every day. If I remember correctly, most college classes were around 4 hours a week and only lasted 10 weeks. That means that you’d be able to finish a college class in around 20 working days (shorter if you listen to lectures on the weekends too).
Some people don’t make time to read. That’s ok too, you can listen to books with apps like Audible. I find that the most efficient way to consume content is to listen to it at 1.5x speed so that you get the information without wasting extra time.
By listening to educational programs on your drive, you’ll get smarter by doing something you have to do anyway.
The most magical thing about driving a car is that you can easily do it in silence. It may be uncomfortable at first, but after a while, you learn to appreciate everything around you.
Sara Blakely, the billionaire and founder of Spanx, once said she loves to drive an extra 30 minutes on the highway in silence just to clear her head. It’s a great time to do some internal reflection and to find the answers to the questions you’ve been asking yourself.
These silent drives give you the time to figure out solutions to your problems and give you the ability to be creative. Some of my best Toastmasters speeches have come from my silent drives to Los Angeles.
When you’re driving a car, you shouldn’t be distracted with your phone or other reading materials. The only thing that’s free to use are your ears. Why not make the most of it?
Imagine going to a retreat in the wilderness for a year. The cabin is filled with books and toys. With all the time in the world, would you spend that time drawing pictures on the walls, or would you rather read and get smarter during that time?
The problem with listening to music in your car is that it’s another form of distraction. We all know that spending your whole day on social media or browsing Reddit is generally not good for us. It’s much better to work on something you enjoy or to read a book.
Listening to music means you’re not filling your brain with new knowledge (from podcasts or audio books) and you’re not letting your brain rest and come up with new ideas. Have you ever tried to solve a difficult math problem while someone was rapping in the background? It’s almost impossible to concentrate.
Use your time efficiently. Listen to podcasts, seminars, and audio books during your daily commute. You’ll learn so much during that time and you can compress your learning by listening to the audio on 1.5x speeds.
Try to sit in your car with nothing on. Your brain will start going into overdrive and you will come up with some amazing ideas!
What original idea will you come up with on your silent drives?
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Dude, I do the 1.5 play speed on podcasts too! It was a little too fast at first but now I'm use to it. What sucks is it makes real life people get on my nerves more. I'm constantly wanting them to just "spit it out" and wish I can fast forward them while they talk :(