Say No To Commuting.

I remember my dad saying once after a career of commuting to Toronto that he had spent the equivalent of several years, 24 hours a day commuting to and from work. My friend comments on the mental anguish associated with the suburb to city commute here (link).

For the last three years I have been within 10 minutes of work after spending several years commuting anywhere form 45 minutes to 1 and 1/2 hours each way in various jobs.

What can be said. On the one hand it is great. Really no aggravation around driving etc. If you have any work-a-holic tendencies, however, it does prove to be a discipline not to put in all the hours saved in commute directly into work. At times I lament I have not changed my family dynamic by being closer, I simply work more. And of course, it is infinitely harder to not physically respond to requests for meetings etc. There isn't the distance buffer.

Still, I think if one has the discipline to set boundaries, no commute is much better. The real problem is that, except on rare occasion, the real money is in the big cities.