Tips for Truckers: No. 237 - Maximize Home Time

At Eagle Logistics, we are full of tips for truckers. 

• No. 119 - Don’t follow livestock trailers on a hot day.
• No. 47 - When the little guy in the near car is gesturing for you to honk, don’t do it in busy traffic. It’s dangerous and universally frowned upon. And besides, he really shouldn’t be doing that at age 37. 
• No. 301 - GPS is like a convenience store hot dog. It sounds like a good idea, but both will have you pulling into a rest stop on short notice. In either case, you might want to keep a paper map handy (No. 301B).   

We could go on and on with tidbits of wisdom from our many years of experience, but today we want to talk about HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR HOME TIME. You’ve earned it, you need it, people need you - what do you do? Well, here are some tips for truckers like you.

No. 237 - Maximize Home Time

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

To be brief, you must prioritize your needs. Although Eagle Logistics values our truckers enough to offer guaranteed, regular home time, even we don’t know all of your personal needs and we certainly don’t want to manage your personal time for you. Time for recouping, visiting doctors, attending activities, maintaining hobbies or professional endeavors, knocking out Honey-Dos, exercising, nurturing relationships, and others are all legitimate reasons to be home, and they are worth fighting for. You are more than an employee and you’re worth more than what you produce. Trucking is not easy work, so make sure you are filling yourself up with some restorative parts of life.

HOW DO I DO IT?

1. Some people find making lists of priorities helpful. Once you know what matters to you and what needs attention from you, then you can start planning. Another one of many helpful tips for truckers is using an app to record and keep your thoughts. Evernote is a wildly popular app designed to help people do just what you are trying to do, maximize their lives. Although Evernote does way more than this, one of the best features for someone with ideas but no free hands, is dictation. With this app or another one like it, you could say your ideas out loud and it will dictate them, so you can review or organize them later. You’re already talking to yourself anyway, you may as well record it and use it productively. Use it to brainstorm and plan ideas to maximize your home time. 
2. Get a good time management app, like MyLifeOrganized or Remember The Milk, and plan your schedule out, even on an hourly basis. What we want to avoid is not paying attention or wasting valuable time doing something less important than what is not getting done. For example, watching TV shows is a valid means of staying sane and recouping some energy, but maybe not at the expense of an even more life-giving activity like visiting a friend or taking someone you love fishing or on a date. Time is your friend and enemy. Manage it so it doesn’t manage you. 

WHAT IF I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO

An app like MindNode could be huge for you. It helps you develop and organize your thoughts and identify your priorities through mind mapping. It sounds hokey, but it’s really cool if you just jump into it. A tool like that can help you start with a broad idea like “I like to be outdoors,” and three steps later you realize you like going to baseball games with your neighbor’s dog on Tuesdays. That was dumb. We’re sorry.

You can also go wild and simply try things. 

• Dabble with different hobbies and see if one sticks 
• Take rides in your vehicle and find interesting places
• Start a side hustle to make money 
• Challenge yourself to learn a new skill
• Experiment with forms of exercise until you find something you’ll actually do
• Volunteer at church or a non-profit
• Attain a new license or certification
• Do home improvements
• Read on topics that have piqued your interest
• Plan and execute elaborate pranks
• Okay we have reached the end of our easy thoughts, but you get the idea.

Eagle Logistics is serious about wanting our family of drivers to be safe, healthy, and happy. Whether that’s through maximizing home time, managing money, caring for your health, or just good ol’ fashioned enjoying life, we want the most for you. So if you are interested in working with a company like that, apply here, or contact us here. Use our Tips for Truckers: No. 1 - Work for Eagle Logistics and find your trucking home!

(Check out our other blog posts here).