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by vbsteven 3340 days ago
Try to get rid of the commute. That's two wasted hours every day.

I have a similar 1hour commute but I only need to be in the office 1 day a week. On the other 4 days I get up at the same time (5:30-6:00am) and I work on my side projects until 8am when I bring my daughter to school and my home-work day starts.

6 comments

> Try to get rid of the commute. That's two wasted hours every day.

I'm not OP, but I have a ~45 minute commute in New York city on the subway. It's one of the places where I can actually relax, read a book, listen to a podcast, and nobody needs me for anything.

(I'd loathe it if I had to drive, though.)

Cool, so your time isn't wasted, it is "me" time.

The original poster is not so lucky.

Yeah, one job entailed a 1hr ride on the commuter rail each way. I could read a book again!
I have ~2 hour commutes each way, and honestly, they are the calmest moments of my life. Sure, I'm white-knuckling it down I680 and I880 hoping I don't die on the freeway. But hey, I'm listening to my favorite music, planning my day mentally, prioritizing things, basically my commute time is my thinking time. It is the only time in my life where I'm not exposed to constant interruptions. Step into the office and my time is chunked into chaotic loosely structured 30-minute sprints. It's meetings, E-mails that need to be answered RIGHT FUCKING NOW, meetings, tracking people down to ask them to help with something, "pings" from people, more meetings. Then I get home and it's do this, run that errand, play with me, feed me, read this book, parent stuff divided into equally frantic 30 minute chunks. I mean I love being a parent but shit, I sometimes can't wait for my commute.
Depends, I travel on train 2h every day. I work on my side projects (I have table reservation and internet from mobile). Additionally I have excuse to leave early.

I wake up 7am, work 8:30am-5pm, 6pm back home. My son is still very small, but long term I plan looking for job with less hours 4/5.

Well I must be in the office 4 days per week and 1 day per week I can work from home. Is this 1 day per week your company policy or did you convince your boss that you can pull it off remotely?
Get a self-driving car and just do the side-projects during the commute.
As someone who suffers from severe motion sickness when I take my eyes off the road, public transit is already awful, and if people start expecting me to do work during my commute I'm going to have to file for disability or something.
I believe it is the horizon that needs to be seen, even in peripheral vision.
LOL, I'm waiting for that day man, it will be the happiest day of my life ;)
Imagine taking a nap in your car while it drives you to work. That's the dream
I turned my commute time into cycling time.