Andrew Mina

I have never been particularly interested in the debate about whether commuting to/from work is good or bad.

I have walked, cycled, taken buses and trains, driven, been driven and driven other people to get/from my place of work. I have had commutes that lasted minutes and others have nearly taken two hours each way.

What I have learned is that the commute itself is not necessarily the problem. It is what we do with it, and what we expect it to be.

No doubt that a commute can be a cost. It can be inconvenient and it can take time away from family and other things that matter to us.

But it can also be something else… A transition. And transitions have a purpose.

We need transitions!

There is something powerful about physically moving from one place to another.

In different seasons of our lives, movement and transitions can signify that something is changing. The beginning of a new season. The end of another. Even something as ordinary as finishing work and beginning the rest of your day.

For people who work from home, this transition can be harder to create.

If you are fortunate enough to have a dedicated home office, closing the door at the end of the day can help. If you work from an apartment, packing away your laptop and work materials can help create a physical signal that work is finished for the day.

But perhaps we should think beyond the traditional commute.

If you work from home, your transition might be walking up/down stairs in your apartment building, walking around the block, cycling to get a coffee or simply going outside for ten minutes.

We need to learn what transitions can do for you in whatever work season you’re in.

I have had many different commutes

Growing up in the countryside meant that my commute was not always determined by when I was to start work. It was often determined by when somebody else was heading into town and vice versa.

As a teenager, that could mean arriving at work an hour or more before I needed to because that was when transport was available.

So I learned to make something of the time.

I went to the movies. I visited people. I went shopping. Sometimes I would stand in my parents’ shop and watch them work — observing how they served customers and interacted with staff.

The commute became part of my life rather than simply the time between two points.

Years later, I found myself with a commute of on average an hour and a half each way. Rather than simply seeing six or seven hours a week disappear, I started a second Master’s degree during that season of my life.

At another point, I subscribed to a broadsheet newspaper and read it on the train. If you have ever tried to read a broadsheet newspaper on a crowded train carriage on a bench seat for three people, you will understand that this required some serious origami skills. But I loved it.

The point wasn’t that I was constantly trying to be productive.

It was that I was intentional about the time.

Your commute doesn’t have to be productive

This is an important distinction.

We live in a culture that can make every spare minute feel like an opportunity to optimise ourselves.

• Read another book.
• Listen to another podcast.
• Learn another skill.
• Answer another email.
• Build your network.
• Make another SoMe post
• Get ahead.

But your commute does not have to be another productivity project.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is nothing.

Look out the window.

Listen to music.

Take a nap – if you are not driving.

Notice the people around you.

Pray.

Be quiet.

Let your mind wander.

The commute can be time for personal, professional or spiritual development, but it can also simply be time for yourself.

Perhaps the better question is not, “How can I get more out of my commute?” It is to ask: “What do I need from this time today?”

Making the most of the journey

Of course, what is possible depends on how you travel. If you are driving, your options are different from someone sitting on a train. You might listen to an audiobook, podcast or the Bible. You might use hands-free time to call a family member or a friend. You might pray.

If you are a passenger, the possibilities are broader. You can read, study, work offline, sleep or write.

At one point in my career, I had a role where I was receiving a constant stream of emails and questions. There was always more communication than I could realistically process during the working day.

When I was traveling by train with no internet connection, I started working offline and without the interruptions of the office. I could work through emails, draft responses and process information. By the time I arrived, I had already made significant progress.

For that season, the commute became a productive part of my working day. But that was the right choice for that season. It does not need to be the right choice for yours.

A commute can be a gift, but it also has a cost

I don’t want to romanticise commuting.

There is a financial cost. There can be an environmental cost. There is a time cost. And for some people, a long commute can have a significant impact on family life, relationships, sleep and well-being.

If you have the opportunity to work from home, that can make a meaningful difference.

I have generally tried to accept commuting when it has been part of the role I have chosen, while looking for ways to make it as practical and affordable as possible. For example, using public transport, buying appropriate travel cards and thinking carefully about the most economical way to travel.

But there are two other questions worth asking:

Why am I commuting for this job?
What does this particular season of work give you?

Perhaps you are because it provides a sense of belonging, opportunities to learn, develop, collaborate or lead (formally or informally). There could be relationships that matter to you or being physically present makes a genuine difference to the work you do.

Or perhaps the commute has become a significant cost without enough return.

We can spend a third of our day at work, but the other two-thirds of our day are inevitably affected by how we work. That does not mean we should immediately leave a job because the commute is difficult. But it does mean the commute is worth including in the conversation about whether our work is working for us.

Sometimes the commute makes the opportunity possible

I recently came across a story in Business Insider that made me think about this differently.

Sienna Sullivan commutes twice a week between New York City and Washington, DC. Her new role required her to be in the DC office on Mondays and Wednesdays, but she wasn’t ready to give up the life she had built in New York. Rather than seeing those two requirements as incompatible, she worked out whether the commute could make the opportunity possible.

This is no small commute.

Sullivan spends around three to four hours each way on the train, traveling roughly eight hours a week. She considered the cost, the risk of burnout and the practicalities before accepting the role. By planning ahead, she found ways to keep the travel costs manageable, and the train journey itself became useful working time.

But what struck me wasn’t the productivity. It was the trade-off.

The commute allowed her to pursue a career opportunity that interested her without immediately giving up the life she had built somewhere else. While in Washington, she could spend ordinary evenings with family. When she returned to New York, she could continue enjoying the friendships, community and life she had established there.

And this isn’t only a New York story.

Even here in Denmark, it is not unusual to meet people who commute between Zealand and Jutland for work while choosing to keep their home and family life in Copenhagen or elsewhere on Zealand. The geography may be smaller, but the question is much the same:

What are we prepared to exchange in order to make a particular life and work arrangement possible?

Of course, this arrangement won’t work for everyone.

A long weekly commute may be completely unreasonable for one person and entirely worthwhile for another. The important question isn’t whether a commute is objectively good or bad. It is whether the exchange makes sense for you.

What are you receiving in exchange for the time, money and energy that your commute requires?

The answer might include

• collaboration, community or career development.
• opportunity to live somewhere we love while working somewhere else.
• a job that, in this particular season, is worth the journey, and
• this commute is costing me more than it is giving me.

There seems to be no universal answer, but there is value in actually having the conversation with ourselves — rather than simply accepting the commute as an unavoidable part of working life.

If you are an employee: make your commute work for you

If commuting is part of your working life, here are a few questions worth considering:

What do I need from my commute today?

Do I need productivity, learning, connection, prayer, quiet or simply rest?

How can I create a transition into and out of work?

What could signal to my brain and body that work has started, and, importantly, that work has finished?

What could I do that I wouldn’t normally have time for?

Am I making the commute harder than it needs to be?

Could I change my mode of transport, travel at a different time, carpool or work from home on particular days?

And perhaps most importantly: Is the commute worth it for this season of my life?

That is not a question about laziness or commitment… it is a question about being intentional.

If you are a manager: have the conversation

For people leaders, I think there is an opportunity here that is often overlooked.

Don’t simply assume that everyone experiences commuting in the same way. Talk to your people about it.

Ask what their commute looks like. Ask how it affects their family, energy and ability to work. Ask what they use the time for. Ask whether there are particular days when working from home would make a meaningful difference.

That conversation might lead to something practical:

• starting or finishing at a different time
• working from home on particular days
• coordinating office days with colleagues
• carpooling
• protecting certain meeting-free periods
• using commuting time for offline work where appropriate
• reconsidering whether particular activities actually need to happen in the office

This is not about removing every inconvenience from working life.

It is about recognising that our employees are human beings before they are employees.

A two-hour commute does not simply disappear when someone walks through the office door. It has already taken time, energy and attention.

And equally, working from home does not mean that someone has no transition between work and life. We may simply need to help people think more intentionally about how they create one.

If we are going to be in the office, make it count

The world of work has changed. We can work from home. We can work remotely. We can work from offices. And increasingly, many organisations are trying to work out what combination works best.

For me, one simple principle is worth considering:

• If people are going to make the journey into the office, there should be something meaningful about being there.
  
• It is the spontaneous conversation with a colleague.
  
• It is collaboration that is genuinely easier face-to-face.
  
• It is learning, mentoring, creativity, community or simply the experience of being together.

Key idea here is:
The office should offer something that is difficult to replicate at home.

Otherwise, we need to ask ourselves why we are asking people to make the journey.

Be a good steward of your time

I have come to think about commuting less as wasted time and more as a question of stewardship. Not optimisation, hustling, but stewardship.

Asking: How am I going to use this time well in this particular season of my life?

• Sometimes that will mean studying.
• Sometimes it will mean catching up with someone I love.
• Sometimes it will mean listening to a podcast.
• Sometimes it will mean praying, and
• Sometimes it will mean staring out of the train window and doing absolutely nothing.

The commute takes us from where we are to where we need to be.

What could your commute be for you?