For some, the daily commute is a sure fire way to grind you down and tire you out, making the week seem much longer than it really is. Having to get up at the crack of dawn and drag yourself through all manner of weather to catch your bus or train, or even having to join the madness of the morning traffic can be enough to dampen anyone’s spirits. It can be especially difficult if your place of work is a long way from home, and it’s a dream of many working men and women to be able to cut out the commute altogether, and who can blame them?
Not having to bother with commuting offers some benefits. For one, you don’t have to worry about getting into work on time, eliminating the need to travel to the office every day. If you choose to work from home or somewhere closer to where you live, you might find that your working day becomes a lot more flexible and enjoyable. You don’t have to get up hideously early just to avoid missing that train, instead you now have time to wake yourself up and ease into your working day. The commute can be stressful and this in turn can affect a person’s productivity or even their mind set, whereas a more relaxed approach to your working day can actually increase your productivity and help work flow. You don’t necessarily have to work from home, either. Companies like Regus can provide flexible leases on office space, virtual offices and so on, allowing you easy access to the equipment and technology you might require.
The commute is also often a source of unexpected expense. It’s one of those things where you end up spending more money than you realise simply because of frequency. A chunk of your pay cheque goes on train tickets, petrol, bus passes and the like every day or every couple of weeks, and these costs add up. More often than not, commuters find that having to travel to and from work every day isn’t as cost effective as it should be; public transport prices are always increasing and running a car has never been cheap, and reducing your reliance on public transport and so on can be a surprisingly effective way to save some pennies. In this current economic climate, we’re all looking for ways to save money and cut back on unnecessary expenditure, so cutting out the commute could be a great way to approach this.
If the option is open to you, then cutting out the commute might be for the best. If you feel like it would be more of a benefit to your work and emotional wellbeing, then look into some alternative working options that will keep you closer to home and remove the need to rise with the dawn to make sure you get into the office on time. It could help you to feel better in yourself as well as your working life.
