How to Plan Your Commute: A Lazy Three-Mode Routine for That Half Hour on the MRT or Bus

This scenario is adapted from common everyday situations, and the name is a pseudonym. The content is just one way to plan your daily routine for reference. Please adjust it to fit your own situation.

Hsiao-han's Forty Minutes: Getting Off the Train Mid-Scroll Every Day

Hsiao-han (a pseudonym) works in marketing planning at an office. To get from home to work, she takes a bus and then transfers to the MRT, which takes about forty minutes each way. Every morning, as soon as she gets on, she takes out her phone, opens social media to see what everyone else is up to, and keeps scrolling until she reaches her stop. The ride home in the evening is the same, except she watches videos instead.

One Friday night, Hsiao-han remembered a book she had planned to finish that week. She hadn't even opened the first chapter. She did the math. Five days a week, two trips a day, and the time she spent on the train and bus added up to quite a lot. Yet she couldn't say what she had done with any of it. She didn't want to fill every single minute. She just wanted to be able to say, when she got off, what one thing she had done on the ride.

So Hsiao-han decided to try something simple. Instead of opening social media the moment she got on, she would first ask herself, "Which mode am I using for this ride today?" This article writes down the routine she worked out, for anyone else who rides back and forth every day.

Why Commute Time Always Slips Away Without You Noticing

Commute time is hard to plan, and it isn't because people lack self-discipline. This stretch of time has a few traits that make it hard to decide what to do on the spot.

• The time is cut into lots of small pieces: Waiting, boarding, transferring, walking. None of these pieces is long, and just as you start to focus, it's time to switch lines. Many people simply give up and scroll their phones.
• The environment is different every day: Today you might get a seat, and tomorrow you might be standing with one hand on the strap. When you're sitting you can type, but when you're standing, even holding your phone is awkward. It's hard to follow the same plan every day.
• You aren't prepared the moment you get on: The show you wanted to listen to isn't downloaded, or you can't find what you meant to read. You try to choose on the platform, the train arrives while you're still choosing, and in the end you open the social media app you know best.
• There are too many choices: There's so much you can do on your phone. Read the news, reply to messages, listen to music, watch videos. You want to do all of it, and you end up doing only a little of each.

So the key to commute time isn't forcing in something deeply meaningful. It's preparing a few modes ahead of time, then picking one based on your surroundings when you get on, so you don't have to rethink it every time.

How to Plan Your Commute: Steps for Rotating Three Modes

Hsiao-han split her commute time into three modes, and each one matches a simple condition. You can follow the steps below and start by trying one of them.

Mode 1: Organizing Mode (When You Have a Seat and Both Hands Free)

Organizing Mode works when you're sitting and can type. Use this time to handle small, scattered tasks, and you'll have a few fewer to-dos by the time you get off.

• Go through all the notifications on your phone at once. Reply to the personal messages that need a reply, and flag the ones that aren't urgent.
• Write down three things you need to do today in your notes app, so you can get started right away when you reach the office.
• Clean up your photo album and delete duplicate screenshots and photos.
• Plan where you want to go this weekend, or make a list of household items you need to restock.

Mode 2: Listening Mode (When You're Standing, It's Crowded, and You Only Have One Hand)

Listening Mode works when the car is packed and it's hard to look at a screen. Put on your earphones, slip your phone into your pocket, and you only need your ears.

• Listen to an episode of a show or an audiobook you downloaded ahead of time. Picking one series and sticking with it makes it easier to pick up where you left off than switching topics every day.
• Listen to foreign language conversation practice and repeat along silently in your head.
• Listen to a full album from the first track to the last, without skipping.

Mode 3: Blank Space Mode (When You Don't Want to Plan Anything)

Blank Space Mode means deliberately planning nothing. Look at the street outside the window, notice what's different in the car today, or run through your evening plans in your head. Blank Space Mode isn't wasting time. It's giving yourself a stretch of time where you don't have to respond to anyone.

How to Choose: Ask Yourself Three Questions Before You Get On

1. Do I have a seat? If you have a seat, consider Organizing Mode first. If not, choose between Listening and Blank Space.
2. Is there any small task I need to deal with today? If so, go with Organizing Mode first and take care of those small tasks on the ride.
3. Do I feel like taking in something new right now? If you do, choose Listening Mode. If you don't, choose Blank Space. There's no need to force yourself.

How to Pair Modes for the Ride There and the Ride Back

Three Minutes of Prep the Night Before

1. Download an episode of the show you want to listen to the next day, so a weak signal on the train won't be a problem.
2. Make sure your earphones are charged and put them in the same pocket of your bag every time.
3. At the top of your notes app, write one line: "What to do on the ride tomorrow." In the morning, just look at that line when you get on.

Common Sticking Points: Four Situations Where You Want to but Can't

Sticking Point 1: You Still Open Social Media Out of Habit When You Get On

If your hand opens social media on its own, it's usually because the icon sits in the handiest spot on your home screen. Try moving your social media apps into a folder on the second page, and put your notes app and podcast player in the top row of your home screen instead. You don't need to delete anything. It just adds one extra step to opening social media.

Sticking Point 2: Too Many Transfers, and Every Leg Is Short

If each leg is only a few minutes, don't plan anything that needs focus. Use Blank Space Mode for the short legs, and save Organizing or Listening for the longest one. The nice thing about Listening Mode is that it keeps playing while you walk between transfers, so changing lines doesn't interrupt it.

Sticking Point 3: You Often Forget to Prep the Night Before

Forgetting to prep is normal. Try tying "download tomorrow's episode" to something you do every day, like tapping download while you set your alarm at night. If you really do forget, that's fine. Use Blank Space Mode that day. There's no need to feel like the whole plan has failed.

Sticking Point 4: Too Many Choices, So You Don't Know What to Listen To

If you've saved too many shows, it takes forever to pick one every time. Try keeping just one series you're currently listening to, and switch to the next only when you finish. With fewer choices, you can just press play as soon as you get on.

Next Step: Just Try One Mode This Week

You don't need to use all three modes starting tomorrow. Hsiao-han also started with only Listening Mode. Once she got used to putting on her earphones as soon as she got on, she slowly added Organizing Mode. You can pick one this week, try it for five workdays in a row, and then see which one suits your route best.

If you like this way of breaking everyday life into small steps, feel free to subscribe to our lifestyle column. We regularly share ideas for everyday things like commuting, daily routines, your desk, and weekend plans, so you don't have to figure it all out from scratch every time.

FAQ

Q: My commute is short, only about ten minutes or so. Do modes still make sense?
Yes. If your commute is short, try sticking to just one mode. For example, listen to the same series every morning on the way in, and use Blank Space on the way home. With a short commute, the point is not having to think when you get on. You just start.

Q: If I wear earphones the whole ride, will I miss the station announcements?
You can turn the volume down a bit or wear just one earbud, and keep an eye on the station name shown in the car as you get close to your stop. When you're still not familiar with a transfer route, take your earphones off first, confirm which way you're going, and then keep listening.

Q: Can people who drive or ride a scooter to work use this method?
When you're driving or riding, road safety comes first. Don't look at your phone, and Organizing Mode isn't a good fit. Don't wear earphones while riding. You can wait until you've parked at the office and then take a few minutes to write down today's three things.

Q: If I use Blank Space Mode every day, isn't that a waste of time?
No. Blank Space Mode is also a kind of plan. As long as it's your own choice, it isn't a waste. If you want to do a bit more later, just start by switching one or two days a week to Listening Mode.