Lagos, the largest metropolitan city in Nigeria, is famous for its usual traffic jams. One of the challenges residents of the city have to face daily is rising early to hit the road hoping to beat the traffic after getting home late the previous night.
I fear Lagos traffic o
How can someone traveling from London get to Lagos before someone driving from Ikorodu to Sango Ota 😥😥#lagostraffic— Yade (@DjZheano) November 30, 2019
It took less time to fly from Accra to Lagos, than it took to drive across Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge. #LagosTraffic
— Banky Wellington (@BankyW) December 2, 2019
According to a study, Lagos -- formerly Nigeria’s capital -- is the third most stressful city in the world. People are stressed for different reasons and spending long hours in traffic commuting daily is one of the justifications for the city being in the top three on the most stressful city list.
The lack of good road networks and a relatively ineffective transport system are also some of the reasons for the unavoidable traffic jams experienced in Lagos. A study has shown that the city, with an estimated population of 22 million people, has more than 8 million people moving in 5 million vehicles packed into a small network of just 9,100 roads every day.
The heavy traffic, coupled with long commutes, can be an energy drainer and productivity killer. However, rather than sit uncomfortably in traffic if you’re not using one of the bike-hailing services, here are some of the productive things you can do with your phone.
Suggested Read: 4 Nigerian-made apps to keep you company in Lagos traffic
Prepare your to-do list
There are days when you have numerous tasks but don't know how to get them done. These tasks may be overwhelming, causing you to lose track of some of them.
To keep you occupied and less infuriated while stuck in traffic, you might want to put down your tasks for the day or those you weren’t able to complete. This will help make your tasks more manageable and better organised.
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Google Keep or your smartphone’s notepad are very useful tools worth considering.
Declutter your inbox
Clearing up your inbox is another thing you can do while in traffic.
Have you ever imagined how nice it would look if you opened your inbox and found zero unread messages? Having a zero inbox helps you to filter through a heap of unimportant and unread messages when looking for an important one.
Spend time archiving, deleting, and unsubscribing from emails/newsletters you don’t find useful anymore.
Suggested Read: 5 ways to achieve inbox zero
This will help you focus on other important work-related tasks, instead of spending countless hours a week in your inbox.
Listen to podcasts/audiobooks
Being driven affords you the opportunity to do many things. While waiting for the traffic to ease off, you might choose to listen to informative/entertaining podcasts or audiobooks. All you need do is choose one, plug in your earphones, and let it play.
Suggested Read: Why you are probably missing out on the goodness of audiobooks
With the help of a good earphones/noise-cancellation earphones, you will be able to cut off distractions caused by noises around you.
You can get podcasts from Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, and SoundCloud, to name a few.
Listen to today's episode of the Techpoint Africa Podcast
Some sources of audiobooks are Loyal Books, Podiobooks, Open Culture, and OverDrive.
Catch up on news around the world
Staying informed is very important as one cannot afford to be ignorant of global occurrences.
Use your time in traffic to tune in to a news station, check social media, or read whatever platform you get information from.
Learn something new
We are in the Information Age where at the tap of a button, the Internet gives us access to everything we want to learn. There are many things we can learn on our own as we seek to be well-rounded.
You might want to learn a new language, take online courses, learn culinary skills, etc., and with YouTube, Udemy, and Coursera, to name a few, there are tons of materials available to do so.
Having said this, there are times that fatigue doesn’t allow one to do anything productive in traffic. However, the next time you’re stuck in traffic, try and put the time you spend to good use as you munch on a snack and drink a cold bottle of your preferred drink.
