Note: This article is based on the work of professional coach Mark Shaed, who tells us about his experience with the impact of commuting to and from work on decreased productivity.
When I asked them what they thought about living in the "big city," they said that while they loved living there, the time they spent going to work was too long.
They moved to Kansas City to be closer to their job, but the husband still spends an hour and a half, often a little longer, back and forth to and from work. The distance was not very far, but because of the traffic, he used to spend more than 3 hours a day on the road.
Although the time he spent commuting to work was certainly above average, it was not surprising. In 2006, Midas launched a competition to find the person who takes the longest time to get to work, and Dave Givens spent an average of 7 hours a day in his car driving to work at Cisco.
It's up to you to decide whether it takes more than necessary to commute to work. You are the one who determines how much time you are ready to spend in the car. When my wife and I bought our first home, I timed the drive between each house I moved into and my work. I remember calculating how much time I spent on the road between a journey of 2 minutes, 55 seconds from the first and a journey of 3 minutes, 45 seconds from the other. I can obviously say that I have a very low tolerance for commute time.
Important steps to avoid wasting a large part of your life behind the wheel
Here are some points that you need to keep in mind if you want to avoid wasting a large part of your life sitting behind the steering wheel:
1. Calculate the costs
Find out how much time you invest in your commute each year. It might be more than you think. The average American spends more time driving each year than they do on their two-week vacation. If your commute is 45 minutes round trip, you use up an extra work day on the road each week, So maybe you can really add an eighth day to your week.
The point is, you need to know how much time you actually invest in your driving. For many people, it will be much more than you realize, and don't forget the cost of fuel.
2. Considering a job change
Most people move because they get paid to work in a job farther away from where they live. This may make sense, but make sure the numbers are appropriate. Suppose someone earns $40 an hour in a job that requires 45 minutes each way. So they earn $1,600 a week.
Let's ignore the cost of gas and say they get a job that doesn't require commuting or is only a few minutes away, and then they get a second job that uses up the eight hours a week they saved.
How much will they need to pay per hour? They might get down to $33.33 an hour and still get the same amount of money for the same amount of time they lost before. Apart from calculating fuel savings and vehicle expenses.
3. Considering a change of residence
I mentioned that friends of mine who had moved closer to their work found that the fuel savings were greater than the cost of a second mortgage. Many people do not calculate the costs that will result from the step they are taking. It doesn't always work out in the future, but if you have a steady job that's a long way off, it's worth your time to do some math.
4. Switching Working Hours
If you have a commute where you drive a short distance but spend a lot of time in traffic, you might try changing your work schedule. Getting to work two hours early and leaving two hours early can keep you away from heavy traffic and turn a one-hour commute into 20 minutes. Not all jobs can accommodate this kind of change, but many companies have written rules to allow for this kind of change.
5. Four working days a week
My county suggested working four days a week because they felt that they were spending a lot of money on fuel just to get to work sites. So all employees who need to commute work 10-hours each day, then get a three-day weekend.
This has happened in other places as well. If your employer is receptive to this, it could be a way to reduce commuting time by 20% by eliminating the time you spend driving for a day.
The problem with this approach is that a 10-hour day is a long day, and you probably won't be as alert and active on four longer days as you would on five shorter days. So far, none of our county's bridges have collapsed, but at least there is a balance between saving fuel and being overworked.
6. Request to work remotely
Imagine that you have a private door in your house. When you're ready to go to work, you'll walk through that door and you'll be instantly at the office, and when you're done, you'll walk through your office door and you'll immediately be at home, and you can use it for lunch too.
This is the basic way to work remotely, but instead of having a magic door, you just have to designate some space in your home as a work office, and make sure you have a good internet connection.
There are some technical hurdles to working remotely for many jobs. If you think telecommuting will work for you, ask your manager to let you try it out. Even if you can only work remotely one day a week, that will reduce the number of days you have to drive to work.
7. Create your own business
We all know that starting your own business is not for everyone. If you want to be in complete control of your commute, starting your own business may be an appropriate option. I'm not saying it's easy, but if you invest the time you spend in your current job plus all the time you spend commuting to and from work, it's possible that you can build a good business if you are willing to work hard and have a certain level of business skills.
How about Dave and his 7-hour commute? According to his LinkedIn page, he quit Cisco last year and started his own coaching business. I bet he won't miss driving for seven hours.
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