I recently changed my job role and job location, which is all great news! However, I went from a 15 minute commute to work to now a 40 minute to an hour with traffic commute. Now that I have lost 2 hours of my day, and most importantly two hours I could be sleeping (!!!), I have had to be very smart in how I use my time driving to and from work.

Don’t Rush in the Morning

My alarm goes off at 6am, and I have very little time to waste in the morning. I try to get outfits picked out for the night before and have my breakfast and lunch already packed. I am usually still half asleep when I get into the car, so I need everything organized and ready to go. In my car, I have a bag of snacks and mini muffins in case I forget to grab food before I leave the house. I also have cases of snapple and diet coke in my trunk so I can grab one while I go into work. I like to be prepared, okay??

Podcasts

Once I get into my car, that is when I start to wake up for the day! I started to listen to podcasts on my morning commute because I started to get sick of the same songs on the radio. It is also a great time to stay up to date on current events and such. I did a full blog post about my favorite podcasts earlier that you should check out.

Pack Snacks

I love food and lately I have been forgetting to eat before work. Then when I get to work I am starving the entire day. Which is very very bad! I started to pack an extra bag for my car filled with breakfast foods and snacks to eat in the car. I drove to work today with a tub of cookies from Trader Joe’s in my passenger seat because it was a rough morning!

Make Time To Relax

When I get home from work, I often just want to crawl into bed after a shower. I started watching a bit of Netflix before bed just to have a few minutes of quiet. I am on my feet the entire day, so it is nice to have a few minutes alone with a scented candle and my fuzzy robe binge watching a show.

Stick to a Bedtime

Tell Netflix that no, you are not still watching! This is something that I need to work on. I usually get home around 10pm and before I know it, it is 2am and I am still wide awake watching another episode. I started to set an alarm on my Fitbit to remind myself when to turn off electronics and go to bed.