How much time do you spend going to and from work every day? Is it in any way productive, or are you driving and unable to do anything but keep your eyes on the road?

Driving Cars in a Traffic Jam

Jef Claes recently did the math on one of his previous commutes and figured that he was wasting 66 working days worth of time every year by driving himself a long way to work.

He concluded that he’d be much better off on a train, where he could allocate 75% of that time to doing something else (reading, working, email etc…), and gain a little back.

Of course, another way to get that time back is to bring your workplace to you instead of going to it. I’ve written about this before in How To Work From Home and Spend More Time With Your Kids. If your employer is open to the idea then this will give you more than just more productive time for work, but also the chance to be closer to your children as they grow up.

Imagine that you had a 15 second commute from one end of your house to the other. If you worked the same amount of time that you used to be away from home, you could potentially take 60+ more days off per year! This is a lot more holidays than most people get in 2 years.

This all depends on your type of work employer of course. If you’re stuck in a situation where you need to go to the workplace then do as Jef says and move closer to the office.