10 things to do when caught in traffic!

Traffic jams are haunting! It gets extremely frustrating, especially if you’ve had a long, bad day at work or if you need to get somewhere urgently.

5 minutes. 10 minutes. 30 minutes. 50 minutes. 2 hours? Of course, you aren’t alone in this dreaded part of daily routine.

I know you are toiling hard; thinking of different ways to avoid this horror. To waste precious time is a bad idea. Rather than moping and grunting, why not distract yourself to get through it?

Let’s zest up your ‘Carpocalypse’!

Here’s a list of 10 productive things you can do safely — while sitting and staring at the car in front of you:-

1.Pay your bills: You are on your phone while waiting around in traffic. Want to do something useful? Pay your bills instead! Google Tez, PhonePe and BHIM are relatively easy to use. Reward? Umpteen cashbacks and time to hop around when home!

2. Schedule your day: Organise the things you want to accomplish in a day with these best to-do list apps: Wunderlist and Evernote. Set alerts, sync errands between your PC and mobile; choose between days and categories and even share them with others. Works like magic!

3. Watch something different : Now is the time to plug in your headphones, set aside Netflix and consider these instead:

• Wendover Productions — How’s and Why’s of the world.
• The School of Life — Real-life school for adults; self, work, relationships, capitalism, comedy, and pop culture.
• VICE — Demystifying global conspiracies and hoaxes.
• Evan Carmichael — Your daily dose of motivation!
• Longshortmovies- The most original and inspiring short films by India’s finest directors.

4. Memory Exercise for the champ: Solving a mind-boggling Sudoku or crossword puzzles will strengthen your brain cells. Try these:

• Elevate-Brain Training Game — Pure brain-gym which challenges your memory, attention, mental agility, language, problem solving, creativity and emotion control.
• Memorado — Fun, personalised memory workouts based on neuroscience; designed to help you get sharper, everyday!

5. De-cluttering your wallet: You got 99 problems and your wallet is one! Ever wondered that traffic could be the best time to clean that junk? No? Do it right now!! Aaand you never know — you might find something surprising ;)

6.Check your stock portfolio: Keeping track of all your financial assets-mutual funds, bonds, ETFs routinely is challenging. To ease your efforts, there are a few handy apps that give A to Z of your investments at a glance.

• Ticker — Colourful graphs, detailed analytics & stock tracking with multiple watch lists. You can even create alerts to notify yourself.
• Investar — This app has been specially designed for the Indian Market. Stock info, on-the-go!

7. Meal Prep: You hustle hard. You plan for the whole day ahead. Why not save time and plan meals for the week in advance??

• Easy Menu Planner — will help you to sort out the dishes(which you already know how to prepare!) The app will also generate a shopping list for the week, automatically. Economise; buy only the items you need.
• Eat This Much — Feed in your budget, diet goals, schedule, personalize any of our recipes or add your own and Voila! Get a complete meal plan to meet your requirements.

8. Spruce up your Instagram: Raise your Instagram game to the next level with these bomb apps:

• VSCO — For the artsy you.
• Facetune & Perfect365 — Photoshop for your face without the expensive price.
• GiphyCam — Feeling creative? Who says Instagram is all about sundowners, symmetrical buildings and duckface? Create GIFs. Be silly once in a while!

9. Wrist & Ankle exercises, anyone? Long office hours, wrong posture and sleeping habits can turn a simple task such as driving, into a harrowing experience. Sit back and flex your muscles with this simple tutorial —

• The Totally Awesome Passenger Seat Workout — Keep your body happy while stuck in a seat.

10. Learning a new language- French, German, or Spanish? Interested in brushing up your language skills? No other app is as fantastic(and free!) as Duolingo. Visually-appealing, short classes for your idle time in traffic. Watch out, though — it can get addictive.

See? Your commute doesn’t have to be so bad, after all.

Tell us how do you like being productive in traffic. Comment in the section below :)

Stay happy. Stay healthy. Get “appy” and let us DriveU!