Commuting changes the way you spend time in the morning and evening before and after the journey. For someone who is disorganised and has problems with attention, it can take over 2 hours in the morning to get ready and it may require an hour or more to wind down after your return. This is particularly true if you are feeling stressed and demotivated and more so if the commute itself was particularly tiresome perhaps due to cancellations or delays and adverse weather conditions.
In my own case, I typically found 4-5 hours vanishing in this fashion. In addition it probably requires about an hour to get started once one has arrived at the destination, unless one is super-motivated, but I did not pay much heed to this element since my interest was in how commute ate up into my free time1.
What I found interesting is that reducing the commute made little difference to these buffer periods around the actual travel, or indeed, it seemed, to my stress levels. Initially I was travelling for an hour or more, in addition to 15-20 minutes walking (including within the station), with at least one, sometimes two, train changes. Then, for a while, I stayed in a place from which the commute continued to involve walking for about the same time and a train change but as it was considerably closer, the duration of the train journey was a lot less. Later still, I stayed close enough that I could complete my commute by bike in less than 10 mins, or walk if I chose. Nevertheless the need to get ready and wind down did not vanish with the reduction of commute length and I found my free time as much diminished as ever.
It was when only remote working began due to Covid-19, that I noticed a considerable drop in my stress levels. I have previously written about how it altered the significance of waking early. Some of the buffer time in the morning could now go into getting up in a more leisurely manner. And whilst I may have spent a good many of my free hours watching Spanish costume dramas on Netflix, I certainly had that time to spare.
What I never tried and wish I had, for the sake of completeness at least, was to stay virtually next door so that the commute become almost non-existent. I think door to door the trip should have taken less than 3 minutes for this experiment to be worthwhile. For instance, when I was a child I lived almost across the road from a library. I could see it from the house. I had only to cross the road and walk a couple of minutes towards the building. As someone with a low tolerance of commutes, I wonder if I would have been a less avid reader during my childhood had I lived further away from a library.
I wonder if it would make a difference also if the commute was very simple. During a recent visit to New York City I felt that covering long distances on foot was less tiring than in London because it was so easy to navigate its grid-like layout and the mental effort and attention required was considerably less. Suppose for instance you lived almost next door to a station from which you could take a direct train that dropped you right next to your destination. But it seems simpler not to have to commute at all.
- Evidently some seem to be more affected by commutes than others. Motivation to reach your destination can make a big difference to your view of it. I had a complex and lengthy commute to school for some years which seemed all the worse because I did not enjoy school and felt it was a waste of time (which I now know that it was). Yet some students literally took in their stride long walks to and from school. I remember a fellow student calmly mentioning having to walk 45 minutes either way but I also recall that this was a particularly motivated student who really liked school. ↩