creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by Mr MPD
Travelling to and from work or University can take up precious time. Why not start the New Year by discovering some tools that could help you make your commute more enjoyable and productive.
If you are commuting by public transport, you could use this time to prepare for the day by organising your calendar, or by decluttering your email inbox.
On Twitter? You could schedule a few tweets using TweetDeck or HootSuite to save time later.
Another useful, time-shifting tool is Pocket, which allows you to save articles, videos, and web pages to read when more convenient. All of your saved pages can be viewed offline, so you can read them anywhere without exceeding your data allowance. Pocket is integrated into more than 500 apps so you can share interesting pages directly from apps such as Twitter and Pulse, making sure you don’t miss a thing.
E-relax
Some people suggest that commuting time should be used to escape from work. Ebooks are an easy, lightweight way of accessing your leisure reading.
Getting lost in a good book will make your journey fly by. Project Gutenburg is a fantastic resource with over 46,000 free Ebooks for you to browse and read online or download to read offline. From War and Peace to Grimms’ Fairy Tales, this selection will definitely allow you to escape to another place and time.
Brain train
creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by ajeofj3
Alternatively give your brain a workout. We have picked two brain training apps, Luminosity and Fit Brains, that are available free on iOS and Android (with the option to upgrade to paid versions if you want to stretch your brain further).
Both apps offer you exercises to develop your memory, attention span, concentration, problem solving skills and visual-spatial skills. It is suggested that you do these exercises for about 20 minutes two to three times a week, perfect for a train or bus journey to work!
If you’d prefer to spend your time brushing up on your French, Spanish or German while on the move then you might want to give the language learning app Duolingo a try.
Audio-drive
Drive to work? One easy solution is to swap your Ebook for an audio book. Librivox is a great resource for free Public Domain audio books with apps for iOS and Android. Contributed to by volunteers, Librivox provides users with more than 15,000 free audio books that can be streamed or downloaded. Librivox notes that their recordings are Public Domain in the USA so do check the regional copyright status of works.
Podcasts
If you want something shorter than a novel or biography, consider a podcast. There are so many different podcasts of different lengths, no matter how long your journey is or what your interests are there’s more than likely a podcast to suit you.
creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by Colleen AF Venable
Digital Trends have a really useful list of their Top 100 Podcasts that cover a range of interests. With subheadings of: News, Comedy, Music, For Your Brain, Stories, Sports, Technology and Art and Culture there’s sure to be something for everyone.
Podacademy.org also has podcasts of current research to help you keep up to date with all the latest findings.
Why not start by subscribing to the Sussex TEL blog if you haven’t already and receive email notifications of each post to brighten up even the dreariest commute! Sign up by just entering your email in the box to the right under Subscribe to our blog.
Have a look at this range of tools and see what could fit into your daily routine and boost your productivity for the start of 2015.
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