Take Back Your Commute

For something so universal, commuting is one thing most of us still haven’t made peace with.

We thought COVID would end it forever, that once we proved productivity could happen from couches, kitchen tables, and makeshift home offices, the daily rush toward trains and buses would disappear. But here we are. Many of us are hybrid, some of us are in the office three days a week, and a bold few are back to the full five.

And if you live in London?
Your average commute is around 38 minutes. Each way.

That’s 1 hour 16 minutes a day.
Nearly 4 hours a week.
Four hours of slow walkers, packed tubes, questionable armpit proximity, and the symphony of the Central line screeching like it needs therapy.

But here’s the thing:
Those 38 minutes aren’t going anywhere, so the question becomes: How do we make them work for us instead of draining us?

Below are four ways I’ve learned to take back my commute and turn it into a pocket of peace, growth, or at the very least… sanity.

1. Go to bed earlier (it changes everything)

This one unlocked so much for me.

Going to bed earlier means waking up earlier, and waking up earlier creates margin — that little bit of breathing room before the world needs something from you.

My mornings are for me: journaling, prayer, stretching, and giving myself a little TLC before I hand my energy to any corporation. When I’ve nourished myself first, the commute feels less like an assault and more like a transition.

It’s a subtle shift, but it changes the tone of the whole day.

2. Curate your commute with intentional listening

Podcasts on a commute aren’t new, but intentional listening is underrated.

Plan your podcast the night before. Download it (because we all know the tunnels are petty). Think about what you want to learn, what you’re curious about, who you want to become — and choose content that feeds that part of you.

Your commute can become a classroom, not just a countdown.

3. Build your dreams on the train

When I had a 1 hour 30 minute commute (thank God that’s not my life anymore), I wrote blog posts on the tube. Truly, if you scroll back far enough on my site, every post from two years ago was drafted between stations.

Long or short, your commute is a pocket of uninterrupted time.
Could you use it to:

• brainstorm business ideas

• write

• code

• sketch

• plan content

• journal

• learn something new

Your commute can be the quiet cocoon where your next chapter gets built.

4. Practice the art (and peace) of being present

This is my favorite one.

Sometimes, I do nothing on my commute. No phone. No music. No Kindle. Just… observing.

People-watching on a London tube is elite. You notice how everyone else is buried in their phone. You watch someone scroll WhatsApp threads they don’t care about, someone else rapidly switching between half-loaded apps underground, someone reading their Kindle like their life depends on it.

And in that stillness, your mind gets a moment to just be, before the stimulating, demanding, overfull day begins.

This is mindfulness in its simplest form:
Being here, without trying to escape the moment.

The commute isn’t small - and it compounds

Those 38 minutes?
They add up.

Time compounds, habits compound, presence compounds, stress compounds.
You get to choose what grows.

Be intentional with your commute, because you’re spending those minutes either way.

Happy commuting, friends.
May your mornings be a little softer, your trains a little quieter, and your time a lot more yours.

Ruth