How to kill time while stuck in traffic?

Flash passersby…

I always make different cd’s with assorted music. Every cd will have different songs, by different artists, but the songs will be grouped together according to genre. For example, I’ll have a cd with instrumentals, another with dark/heavy music, another with upbeat/fast paced music, another with sad music, etc. I’ll label them accordingly and pop them in depending on my mood.

I prefer singing at the top of my lungs with the windows down.
And I’m not a good singer.

Play the car game. This is what you do:
1. Pick a color
2. Look for the color on any type of car.
3. if you get more than 30 cars you win.
Although this may seem childish it can actually be very fun when you have nothing else to do.

You can even try looking for words on the license plates. You will see that you can find a lot of words on license plate. It’s a fun game to play when you are bored.

I keep a dust cloth in the car and dust, wipe it down inside while hanging in traffic.

I shined my shoes. I kept polish, brushes and rags in the car for just such an occasion.

I file my nails and floss my teeth and listen to NPR.

Pick your nose and make sure passers by notice…

talk to somebody… or listen to the radio….

I made up a game called “mortar”. Pick a distant object that you feel is X seconds away and see how close you can come to hitting it. You can play solo or with other passengers in competition or just fun. You need a digital watch with seconds

This works particularly well on long drives where you can get shockingly good at it. “Level one” is to pick an object when you feel it is exactly 1 mile away. “Level two” is to pick an oncoming car that is one X-mile away. “Level three” is to look down and to quickly do simple math in your head for adjustments in your speed (e.g. 82mph – how many seconds to 1 mile out – and where is that exact spot).

It gets fun when you start picking objects that are not visible – say a car in a dip, or adjusting for large bends in the road.

Level four and beyond is Jedi master stuff. Such dangerous information cannot be divulged here to the untrained.

I don’t see why this wouldn’t work in traffic.

Look at license plates around you, and then make something from the letters…like, BSA; ball sucking asshole.

I always carry a needlepoint or cross-stitch project with me. I recently started a new hand sew quilt project which I can carry in a small bag, so I welcome any chance I get to work on it. I also do my needlepoint projects while waiting for my very slow computer to load a page. I can usually get between 5 – 10 stitches done with each page.

Listen to music or play crossword puzzles, or bring your book along to read. I also make words out of licence plates sometimes, eg if the letters are DFN, i’d make a single word and the word must contain those letters in the order in which they appear, eg definitely.

Audio books. Or inventing stories in your head. I do enjoy the latter.

@mattbrowne – I do that, too! I come up with some of my best plot ideas whilst stuck in traffic or stuck in a meeting at work, and unable to write down an outline or start fleshing out the story :-(

That’s why I asked this question…

@HungryGuy – How about a little recording machine? Recording voice instead of thoughts.

@mattbrowne – I had thought about that. But I can’t do that on a bus or train commuting to work, or at work :-(