If you’re studying a campus-based course, chances are you’ll have a commute to undertake multiple times a week. If you don’t make the most of this time, then you’re missing out. Below, we look at some great ways to make the most of your commute to university.
By Cara Fielder. Published 5 April 2024.
Podcasts and audiobooks
Making the most of your commute doesn’t mean you have to be working but podcasts and audiobooks give you an equal opportunity for education or escapism. Whether learning about arts, culture or business through audio like TED Talks and Dairy of a CEO, keeping up with gaming news via the IGN podcast or listening to a romantasy on Audible, your commute is the perfect time to listen.
Get creative
If you take public transport to university, then there are lots of creative and crafty things you can do on the move. Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking about a creative project that’s right for you:
- Drawing (digitally or physically)
- Knitting
- Writing (articles, scripts, a book, poetry etc)
- Sewing (but be careful with those needles)
- Origami
Brain training
Brain training exercises and challenges are a great way to wake your brain up for the day and enhance your cognitive skills. A Harvard study on people using brain training apps found that they “were faster at processing information and had better working memory (a measure of how well they could recall information and apply it to tasks), compared with those who played the traditional computer games”.
Apps like Lumosity, Elevate and Happify provide games and exercises with the aim of improving memory, boosting productivity and even increasing happiness.
Studying
I doubt anyone is surprised that studying made our list, but we’d be mad to miss it.
Whether you’re studying from a book, flashcards, lecture recordings, notes or our much-loved SQE app, you can get some extra studies in during your commute. If you have the same commute as a friend, why not study together and use the time to send each other questions? This way, you stay in touch and might cover study areas you missed in your own notes.
Meditation and breathing exercises
Depending on the ease of your commute and your ability to disconnect from your surroundings (some noise-cancelling headphones might be useful), you could use the time to meditate or carry out breathing exercises.
Breathing exercises can have a positive impact on your mental and physical wellbeing, including:
- Lowering your blood pressure
- Lowering your heart rate
- Improves sleep quality.
- Relieves stress
- Increases physical energy
- Reduces lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue.
You can learn more about breathing exercises on the British Heart Foundation website.
Exercising
If your commute is short, you might find it beneficial to leave the car or skip public transport and run, walk or cycle into university. Yes, you need some serious willpower to do this during the winter months but even if you just do it during fine weather, you can save money, build strength and boost those endorphins.
If you want to study but know a full-time course won’t work for you, check out our flexible part-time courses.
