Two hours a day in the car. What else should I be doing?

January 28, 2016 9:45 AM

I spend two hours a day in a car, alone, commuting. Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, books on tape, language learning, Kegels. What the hell else could I be doing?

If you say, "research public transportation" or "look into vanpool options," you lose the game.

I try and I already enjoy all the usual suspects. Got an iPhone and unlimited data. Podcasts and book on tape are my jam. I have the full accounts at Spotify and Pandora. I've even watched movies and TV shows. I'm willing to be a little spendy on gadgets and gizmos.

What else?

Please assume I'm not stupid and will be safe and won't take my eyes off the road.

posted by Cool Papa Bell to Grab Bag (28 answers total)

I once knew a guy who used his car commute for singing practise. He took regular lessons and used the time for vocal exercises, song practise, the whole works. Apparently he got quite good. It seems a bit more active than just listening anyway.

Or you could become a regular on your local call-in talk radio show.
posted by shelleycat at 9:50 AM on January 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

Big Finish's audio adventures are different enough from audiobooks that I think they're worth a mention.

You could write a book via voice dictation.
You can report road problems via Waze.
You could--now bear with me, this is pretty out-there--call people and chat with them.
posted by wintersweet at 9:51 AM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Seconding singing lessons and voice training.
Practice your karaoke skills at the very least, and learn a few new songs by heart - pick a few to put on repeat in a playlist.
posted by lizbunny at 9:54 AM on January 28, 2016

Practice meditation or mindfulness. Basically, try to fully experience yourself and the world while driving. Example.
posted by neeta at 9:54 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Once when I was stuck for a while driving a vehicle with no stereo or even a radio, I used my drive time to recite all the poems I knew by heart. I learned some new ones, too, at home in the evenings, and practiced them while driving.
posted by Redstart at 9:57 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Do one hundred smiles just before you get home, helps stick the landing.
posted by Oyéah at 9:58 AM on January 28, 2016 [9 favorites]

Satellite radio (ie SiriusXM)? Many more channels for mindless browsing and talk radio, at least.
posted by cgg at 10:02 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Call someone? I "commute" home with my best friend several times a week - he's on the road, I'm at home and we talk about nothing and everything for about an hour while he sits in traffic.
posted by cecic at 10:07 AM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

floss your teeth?
(using a flosser thingy in case that wasn't obvious)
posted by pennypiper at 10:11 AM on January 28, 2016

If you think it's too early to call someone, consider if you have any elderly relatives who get up early and would like a call.
posted by yohko at 10:12 AM on January 28, 2016

There is a series of educational book-on-CDs called The Great Lectures or The Modern Scholar that have been very good for me to pass a few week's driving. For example, "The Brewmaster's Art" by brewing professor Charles Bamforth was enormously interesting and engaging; and at 7 CDs, it filled a lot of road miles.

There are other recorded lectures on things like history, literature, and other topics, so you can probably find something that interests you.

(I also sing as loud as I can while I drive. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:22 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

I keep a couple of harmonicas in my car for practice. Assumes that you are comfortable driving with one hand on the wheel.
posted by doctord at 10:32 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Assuming that "crying" falls into the same losing category as "research public transportation"...

You could probably do a ton of Duolingo/language lessons of your choice. That's about all I've got, unfortunately.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:46 AM on January 28, 2016

I have a friend that wrote a novel on his commute. He narrated the story into his phone while driving and then wrote it up later.
posted by COD at 10:54 AM on January 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Super delish prepared snacks. Especially healthy ones that keep you energy up .. Not high sugar or high fat. A cooler with Individual bags of snap peas and raw green beans, almonds, infused water, a couple amazing whole grain sandwiches, etc.
posted by ReluctantViking at 11:17 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Memorize Jeopardy-type factoids, then try out for Jeopardy and win.

Memorize poems. I do this but it's a little frustrating because there is literally no time in life when anyone else wants to hear you bust out a poem. But you can recite them to yourself on future commutes!

Do facial exercises?
posted by HotToddy at 11:20 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Im a big dummy! I glanced and thought you were driving for 2 days. Well, I stand by the infused water suggestion!
posted by ReluctantViking at 11:21 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Start a blog and use some kind of audio means to craft initial drafts of posts. Or even make your own podcasts. "On today's episode of Drive Time, I am going to tell you that fishing tale..."

Take videos of your commute and the landscape you drive through. Upload them somewhere.

Make friends with someone in a different time zone such that calling them during either the morning or evening leg would make sense.

Facial exercises

Look up other weird exercises that can help you get fit in some way. Stretches are especially good because a lot of stretches involve holding a pose for a bit. Especially if you have cruise control, this is very feasible to do one arm or leg at a time.
posted by Michele in California at 11:22 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Play Ingress.
posted by Rob Rockets at 11:33 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

For language learning, Pimsleur makes you talk a lot. You can do that out loud in the car.
posted by meijusa at 11:39 AM on January 28, 2016

I have a similar commute. I really like my Sirius xm. Also, yes, podcasts, singing, eating, talking on the phone, and composing haiku in my head about bad drivers and such.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 11:42 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe work on precision driving skills. Seriously.

When traffic comes to a stop, can you brake so smoothly that there is absolutely no detectable lurch when your car comes to a stop? (when you're carrying passengers they will dig that).

Can you keep a distance of 2 feet beside the dashed lane marking for say, one mile?
(While keeping an eye out for lane-splitting motorcycles).

Working on becoming a better driver ain't a bad goal.
posted by artdrectr at 12:06 PM on January 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

neeta's advice is spot-on. artdrectr too. Focus on your driving. Keeping your eyes on the road is only one aspect of preventing distracted driving. There's also keeping your hands on the wheel and your mind on the driving.

Here's an overview on distracted driving by the CDC. The CDC does not condone the use of gadgets or gizmos while driving. (AAA studied in-vehicle information systems and here's their full report on those.)

Make a game of driving the car as perfectly as humanly possible. Can you spot the hidden pedestrian? Turn this wikihow suggestion into a game:

Be conscious of possible problems. Driving is about anything happening any time and you need to remain alert to the possibilities. It is really important to anticipate possibilities - this does not mean the same thing as assume - it means that you must anticipate what might happen next. For example, you see a driver's head in front of you turn one way but they haven't used the indicator. Be prepared for their sudden slowing down and turning because you read their body movement. People forget signaling sometimes and it is wise to be prepared. Anticipate light changes, congestion impacts (driving too close can result in rear-ending during traffic jams), turning vehicles, wide vehicles needing more space, emergency vehicles needing to pass through etc.

If singing practice, sing about the topics described in the above quote. Chew gum!
posted by aniola at 12:42 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Listen to audio books or favorite movie soundtracks. I also like to sing/listen to my favorite songs. Call people to chat for a bit. Also, I listen to shows I've seen a million times and can basically recite by memory. That way I don't have to actually see what's going on to know what's happening, but there is background conversation to keep my commute bearable. Obviously safety is the number one priority, but I prefer listening to my favorite shows than a podcast.
posted by lunastellasol at 12:50 PM on January 28, 2016

I came here to say a combination of the things that artdrctr and neeta said. I've not had a long car commute for quite a few years, but when I did, the hour I spent on the motorway each way (assuming no stationary traffic) was spent in a continual cycle of exercising my situational awareness. So I'd be awarding myself points for anticipating when another driver was going to make a lane change, or perfecting my own prediction of when to change lanes.

But it sounds worthy and preachy if I tell you to do this because it makes you a safer and better driver. It does, and I have many urges to be preachy about that subject. But the other thing is that driving mindfully is practising a couple of other transferable skills:

Predicting the behaviour of members of a group of people from tiny cues

When you're driving mindfully in relatively busy traffic, there's probably 20 or so different drivers (or in urban traffic, people) who can impinge on your plans, from the driver 4 cars ahead who might change lanes to make the upcoming exit, to the speck in your rear view mirror that's someone who'll be looming impatiently behind you in a minute or two. Practice reading traffic like this and you'll be much better at reading a room or reading a football game in no time.

Becoming one with a machine

OK, I'm exaggerating a bit here, and hopefully the actual process of operating a car feels like second nature to you anyway, but just appreciating every time you notice yourself thinking "I want to be there" and moving yourself there without being conscious of any of the interactions you had with the steering wheel, throttle or brakes is a good thing. Because the world's full of machines that we need to use, and becoming smoother and neater at using them is always worth it.

posted by ambrosen at 1:20 PM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've been thinking about dictating my memoirs during long commutes (as it seems safe). Got any memoirs to dictate?
posted by freecellwizard at 2:11 PM on January 28, 2016

I have a manual transmission and in stop-and-go traffic I would see for how long I could regulate my (super-low) speed with only the clutch and not the brake.
posted by bendy at 9:45 PM on January 28, 2016

iTunes U! You can listen to the entirety of a ton of lecture courses from some of the best universities in the world. For free. Why do we do anything else with our time.

As a starting point, I recommend Margaret Lavinia Anderson's History of Europe (from the printing press to the present). It's really, really good.
posted by davidjmcgee at 7:04 PM on January 30, 2016