With summer vacation over and offices filling up again, it’s probably taking longer to get to work than it used to. If you’re back to the office several days a week, if not full-time, you can view your commute as a return to hell or you can look at it as the most valuable time of your day.
I live and work in Dallas. Our traffic is pretty bad at all times of the day. If you think the commute will be stressful and awful, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It will put you in the wrong frame of mind for the rest of the day, and that’s not fair to your team, clients and family when you get home.
But if you think about it, your commute can be a quiet oasis of contemplative time. You’re all alone in a self-contained vehicle. You don’t have the usual interruptions of your office or home. Most people in your work life are reachable since they’re not tied up in meetings immediately before and after regular working hours. With the right approach, your commute can be your most valuable 64/4 time of the day.
Make commuting time your ‘office hours’
If you’re a leader, your commute could be the time of day when you check in with your team. Many people on our team have questions or issues for which they need your help. You could tell them to call you during your “office” hours of 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (or whenever you’re in the car). Or you could have a standing daily call with your team from 8 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. They know that’s the time of day when they can ask you questions. Doing so limits the number of times you are interrupted during the day when you’re working or meeting with clients. They know they can reach you during your designated “office hours.”
Call your clients
Remember my article about the value of calling your best clients on their birthdays? Put your A-list clients’ names and birthdates in your calendar. Call them to say happy birthday during commuting time. Think about how great that makes clients feel when their first call of the day is from their trusted advisor, wishing them a happy birthday and asking them how they will celebrate. You’ll learn more about your clients on that birthday call than you will at any other time of the year.
Professional development
Another way to make better use of commuting time is to do compound learning. Every CPA knows they should read more books as part of their lifelong professional development. But reading books requires two things you have in short supply: time and attention. But you can get most books as audiobooks these days. If you have a 30-minute commute each way, you can get through three books a month, on average, without having to change your habits. So, compound that learning over time.
Whether holding office hours in the car, calling clients on their birthday, or listening to professional audiobooks, you’ll see tremendous improvement in your personal and professional growth if you incorporate any of those three tactics into your daily commute.
Imagine how empowered you will feel when you transform your daily commute from a dreaded waste of time to a valuable investment of your time. It’s when you interact with your team, build relationships with clients and plan out your day (morning commute) or the next day (evening commute). Your commute can be the best time to have meaningful conversations because everyone has your undivided attention.
Many of you have asked me about having important client conversations during your commute. You can. Just don’t try to scribble notes while driving, and don’t try to remember everything discussed. You won’t. Instead, after your call, use a voice transcription app such as Rev.com on your phone and summarize your conversation and any follow-up items that need to be handled. Hit the “transcribe” button, and less than an hour later, you will have a professionally typed transcript of the call delivered to your inbox.
As the old saying goes: “Your brain is for having ideas, not for storing ideas.”
If you’re constantly whining about your long commute and complaining you don’t have time to read, it might be time to overhaul your commute. Consider these tactics above and let me know if you have other ways to make your commute more productive. I’d love to hear from you.
