Making the Most of the Drive to Work

I spend a half hour driving to work and a half hour driving home. At 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, that is 250 hours each year I commute to and from work. For some of you, it is twice that. That is a lot of wasted time. Learn to make the most of it by turning your car into a resource.

Instead of listening to talk radio or music, consider learning a foreign language or listening to motivational or business books on CD. In 250 hours, you could learn conversational Spanish. You could become an expert in a field. You could hear all the leading business and marketing books to help you get ahead. The most important commodity we have is time and you have to learn to harness every last minute of it and make the most of it.

Now, listening to 250 hours worth of CDs can get expensive. To lessen the cost, consider checking out CDs from your local library. Associations you belong to may have a lending program for such materials. Also, there is a great deal you can download for free or at little cost onto your I-Pod and listen to it through your car stereo. And if you are truly motivated, start a local club with friends where each of you buys certain books on CD, listens to them and then lends them to the others. If you can recruit just four other participants, you will cut your annual cost by 80%.

Time in the car does not have to be wasted time. Decide how to improve yourself over the next 12 months and look for materials you can listen to that will help you reach your goal. You will be surprised just how much your car is an educational tool.