The daily commute has a reputation of being somewhat dismal, seeing everyone head off to work, everyone looking like they could use more sleep, it’s all a rather common sight, isn’t it? That kind of atmosphere does tend to rub off on you when you get on the tube or the bus. Allowing your weariness to set in, making you realise how much you don’t want to be travelling to work right now and how much you would rather be back in bed with your head under the pillow. However, not everything has to be as depressing as it initially seems, there are several ways of making your daily commute much less dreary which you could introduce into your life starting tomorrow.

A bit of literature

To oppose the usual lifeless twitter feed scrolling which plagues today’s public transport, why not pick up a book to read? You would surely stand out from the crowd with your beautiful book cover rather than an iPhone. Reading is almost sure to be more enriching than your social media feed, and it will also allow you to display an aura of smugness and eloquence. Reading is often hard to justify in the modern working lifestyle, long hours and very little free time outside of the office often leaves you so tired you can only manage to switch on the TV the moment you touch down on the sofa. On the bus or tube however, you’re gonna be sitting there anyway, making it a great time to finally pick up that book someone recommended to you years ago.

Moving with the times

If you really don’t want to read a book because it isn’t trendy and cool enough nowadays, consider either reading on your tablet or getting a specific reading device like a Kindle. Ipads and all other kinds of tablets do the job just fine, but reading on them for lengthy amounts of time can be somewhat straining on the eyes Kindles use a specific kind of display which stays readable even in very bright conditions with no screen glare, and keeps your eyes happy. While nothing can quite recreate the appeal and feel of reading a book, the smell of the pages, the page-turning and the hefty weight, they are starting to show their age as a media. Rather than carrying around one book with you which is going to take up a decent chunk of your bag, consider get a thin tablet which can carry a near infinite amount of books.

Changing it up

If the everyday routine of the bus or tube is getting to you, why not change up the routine? After all, there are more ways of transportation in this day and age and nothing is stopping you from biking to work, or using a scooter. Maybe even finally using an uber coupon to get chauffeured to work like royalty. Not only would this be a change of pace from the daily routine you’ve been through way too many times, but it would also get you away from the sleepy hordes of office-goers.

Beyond candy crush

Mobile gaming is a huge market now, what once was reserved for nerds and children, is now seen as a standard use of a mobile phone. While mobile games like candy crush or bejeweled are satisfactory time-wasters, they are not exactly the magnum opus of gaming. If you’re going to be sitting there playing match-threes anyway, why not invest in an actual portable console and play slightly more quality games. With the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita being well-established consoles with a large library of games, and the Nintendo switch being the first home and portable console hybrid, getting into gaming on-the-go has never been better.