Bored Of Your Commute? This App Will Change Everything

American commutes are now longer than ever. In fact, in 2014, we spent an average of 1.8 trillion minutes (that’s 3.4 million years!) trapped on the way to work. In the UK, people travel even longer—one hour and 38 minutes, to be exact. Accountants fare the worst, on the move for an average of 75 minutes, but IT workers have it nearly just as bad at about 65 minutes.

Here’s one thing that’s for sure: people hate their commutes, mainly because they feel it’s a waste of time. And they’re not wrong: in 3.4 million years we could have coded nearly 300 Wikipedias, or built the Great Pyramid of Giza 26 times—and that’s just in a year!

But some people don’t loathe their trek to work at all. In fact, they cite it as their favorite time of the day. What is it that these smart commuters know? People who truly love their commute transform it into “me time” by learning something new.

It turns out there is a tech company out of Berlin, Germany that built an app to help people do just that, and more and and more happy commuters are discovering it every day.

Your commute’s perfect partner

The Blinkist app takes great nonfiction books, which are one of today’s most important ways to get new knowledge, and condenses their key insights into a format that you can easily read or listen to on your tablet or phone. Their format is called “blinks,” because each key insight can be read or heard in the blink of an eye.

One blink is equal to a key idea from a book, and it takes just 90 seconds to grasp it. One book usually consists of 10 blinks, so you can get through a book’s-worth of big ideas in just 10 to 15 minutes.

What people love about the Blinkist app is that it lowers the barrier to getting started, so even when you’re tired on the train at 7:30 a.m., it’s still easy to tune in and learn something new.

And believe it or not, the Blinkist app also inspires people to read more books. Over 90% of Blinkist users report that they read as many or more books in full since subscribing to the service.

A personal audio-learning experience

Not all of us have the luxury of having our hands free when we’re riding in to work. If you’re driving or biking, you already know that audio learning is your best friend.

In the first two years of operation, customers wrote in endlessly, requesting audio versions of the Blinkist app’s content.

And so, in just a couple of months, they made it happen. Now, more commuters than ever can fit learning into their morning routine, more easily than ever. And you won’t get any tinny bot voices with these audio summaries: Blinkist records living, breathing narrators they know and love, so every single blink is engaging and delivered by a real person.

Made by real people

Most of us commute alone, but getting to and from work with Blinkist, their users say, is like riding in with a smart friend. The makers of the Blinkist app come from 21 countries and have a collection of degrees and experience that runs the gamut from physics researcher to literature professor to mathematician. They’re people who care deeply about learning and getting to the bottom of the big ideas that matter—in every subject.

Blinkist’s makers read every book, write every book-in-blinks, and edit and record every single pack of key insights themselves. It takes a minimum of 7 people to make a book-in-blinks, which means you never have to question its quality. You just sit back, queue up an audio version of a non-fiction bestseller, and let a team of likeable people tell you all about it—all before you even get to work.

Ideas that improve your morning and your mind

People with commutes—even if they’re only 25 minutes—are more likely to be anxious and depressed. Riding a bus for 30 minutes or longer was associated with the lowest levels of life satisfaction and happiness of all.

One thing that’s been proven to boost mood time and again is to do something you love and that makes you feel productive. If you spend that time improving your mind and satisfying your deepest curiosity about the world, your own mind, and how to live better, you’re bound to give yourself a little mood boost.

The kind of content that the Blinkist app offers—over 2,000 great books on happiness, productivity, professional goal setting, management, mindfulness, and much more—is ideal for transforming a time-sucking commute into a powerful boost for your well-being.

Try the Blinkist app for free

You could watch your minutes tick away as you sit, stuck in traffic. Or you could do what 2 million people are already doing and try the Blinkist app in the car, on the train, or on your walk to work.

Whether you want to read or listen, the Blinkist app gives you the tools you need for some seriously powerful daily me-time. You can download it for free and try it out on your way home today. What do you have to lose? You just might be happier for it.