The one thing I'd put in context is "don't waste time on commuting".
In Europe for sure and possibly many parts of Asia like Japan or bigger metropolises in China etc. most people will commute by public transport.
You can read. Whenever I had a job where I commuted at least an hour a day, the number of books I read, per month, went from 2–3 to 10 or more.
In the Paris area, if you commute during rush hour, you'll probably been stuck between 100 people per square meter. At best, you can listen to some podcasts or audiobooks.
When I still had to work from the office, I was fortunate enough to be able to move my hours earlier so I could avoid morning rush hour and could, indeed, read in the morning. Afternoons I couldn't, more often than not.
It was just wasted time. I can also read on my couch before I start working from home. I've read many more books since I was able to WFH on most days.
I agree with you as long as it's passive commuting (NOT driving). I had a few jobs / cities with long (45+ minute) commutes and I also got a ton of reading done that I wouldn't I wouldn't normally
My experience is that for people with kids, this benefit basically disappears and they want every spare second they can get
Or listen to podcasts/audio books. Helps when the commute involves traveling in crowded trains/busses during peak times.
You can cover a lot of ground while listening to podcasts. And diversity in podcasts is huge.
Public transport makes commuting less wasteful, but I am not sure it makes a long commute free
Definitely not; I'm looking at a possible new job, but public transit to get there is an hour and a half. Even though they only ask you to be in the office two days a week, that's 6 hours a week I won't get back.
I mean I still want to apply to the job to see if they offer me a significant step up in terms of wages (doubtful), but I'd rather have something closer to home.
Can confirm .. I grew up in a country (Australia) which is practically impossible to live in, without a car .. then I moved to California and did everything I could to avoid the commutes (really a very difficult task), lived there for 15 years and only managed to optimize my life to be able to walk around LA/my neighborhood in the last few years of it .. then moved to Japan for a year, where everything I needed to survive was within a 10 minute walk of my apartment - and then to Austria, in a city that was laid out a thousand years ago to be navigable by foot, and still is.
Commuting is one of the worst aspects of the Western world. The fact that hundreds of millions of people have to sit in their cars, for hours every day, to get to work/play/live, is just a tragedy. I truly hope the next hundred years proves much, much more fruitful for those of us who are willing to change lifestyles to avoid the commute. Its a huge drag.
We made a major improvement onethis with remote work then it was decided that isn't allowed and we do "hybrid"
It's great if you can do that -- some people (I, for one) get such heavy nausea from reading in any kind of transport that the only thing I can do is listen to the music and look at the clouds.
or being on ADHD spectrum, forget reading with distactions.
this is a good reminder for me. I just switched from a 5 minute cycle commute to a 20 minute cycle commute. Time to break out some audio books.