Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to try commuting with a friend, thus turning commuting time into relationship building time at least once in a while. Few people enjoy their commutes. They tend to be a necessary part of getting to work, but studies of human happiness find that the morning commute is the lowest moment of people's days. The evening commute isn't quite so bad because you arrive home afterwards, but the morning commute has no such redeeming features. To deal with this misery, we listen to podcasts and such to make the time go faster. But here's another option. Consider commuting with a friend, a colleague, or your spouse on occasion. This can turn a low point of the day into one of the day's highlights. First, I'll say that I know a lot of people already socialized during their commutes because they're on the phone. People send me the tip all the time to call relatives during a commute, but the truth is that dialing and talking can be quite distracting. I try not to do phone calls while driving, and I'd encourage you not to either. But having another adult in the car isn't nearly as distracting because that person can see when you've encountered a tense situation. When break lights come on suddenly, the other person in the car gets quiet. But all the other good parts of socializing are there. You can catch up and keep each other entertained. Many people say that they don't spend enough one on one time with their spouses or their friends. By sharing a ride, you find time for fun during something you had to do anyway. It seems straightforward enough, but every year or so I get sent transportation surveys finding that very few people carpool regularly, even with HOV lanes adding an incentive. I think there are a few reasons for this. We like to leave when we want to leave. We don't like to think about our drives ahead of time. If commutes are unpleasant, we don't want to go out of our way, even if it would make the whole experience much better. There are also some funny psychological issues going on. Even if we always go straight home from work. Maybe we like to entertain the fantasy that today is the day we'll take off for Atlantic City. Instead, and of course you can't do that if the carpool is waiting for you, so we waste time and money holding onto the fantasy. In any case, there's some value to flexibility, so you probably don't want to do this every single day, but if you feel like you never see your spouse, it could definitely be worth driving ten to fifteen minutes out of your way one day a week so you can share the ride both ways on that day. Or maybe you have a friend who lives ten minutes from you and works ten minutes from you, and it's sort of a twenty minute time cost on both ends, but not really, because the extra time will feel enough better than the time you were spending that you'll probably be happy about it. Work friends, of course, have the upside of being located much closer to you on one end of the commute. It might be wise to treat this as a strategic career boosting time. Find someone you think is a real go getter, and the two of you can strategize how you'll conquer the world when you share a ride one day a week and no one else will be around to hear your plotting. Have you ever turned your commute into social time. If so, please let me know. You can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to try commuting with a friend, thus turning commuting time into relationship building time at least once in a while. Few people enjoy their commutes. They tend to be a necessary part of getting to work, but studies of human happiness find that the morning commute is the lowest moment of people's days. The evening commute isn't quite so bad because you arrive home afterwards, but the morning commute has no such redeeming features. To deal with this misery, we listen to podcasts and such to make the time go faster. But here's another option. Consider commuting with a friend, a colleague, or your spouse on occasion. This can turn a low point of the day into one of the day's highlights. First, I'll say that I know a lot of people already socialized during their commutes because they're on the phone. People send me the tip all the time to call relatives during a commute, but the truth is that dialing and talking can be quite distracting. I try not to do phone calls while driving, and I'd encourage you not to either. But having another adult in the car isn't nearly as distracting because that person can see when you've encountered a tense situation. When break lights come on suddenly, the other person in the car gets quiet. But all the other good parts of socializing are there. You can catch up and keep each other entertained. Many people say that they don't spend enough one on one time with their spouses or their friends. By sharing a ride, you find time for fun during something you had to do anyway. It seems straightforward enough, but every year or so I get sent transportation surveys finding that very few people carpool regularly, even with HOV lanes adding an incentive. I think there are a few reasons for this. We like to leave when we want to leave. We don't like to think about our drives ahead of time. If commutes are unpleasant, we don't want to go out of our way, even if it would make the whole experience much better. There are also some funny psychological issues going on. Even if we always go straight home from work. Maybe we like to entertain the fantasy that today is the day we'll take off for Atlantic City. Instead, and of course you can't do that if the carpool is waiting for you, so we waste time and money holding onto the fantasy. In any case, there's some value to flexibility, so you probably don't want to do this every single day, but if you feel like you never see your spouse, it could definitely be worth driving ten to fifteen minutes out of your way one day a week so you can share the ride both ways on that day. Or maybe you have a friend who lives ten minutes from you and works ten minutes from you, and it's sort of a twenty minute time cost on both ends, but not really, because the extra time will feel enough better than the time you were spending that you'll probably be happy about it. Work friends, of course, have the upside of being located much closer to you on one end of the commute. It might be wise to treat this as a strategic career boosting time. Find someone you think is a real go getter, and the two of you can strategize how you'll conquer the world when you share a ride one day a week and no one else will be around to hear your plotting. Have you ever turned your commute into social time. If so, please let me know. You can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.