Ask HN: How can I reclaim some of my commute time? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I reclaim some of my commute time?

15 pointsicey56 comments

Right now I spend around 2 hours a day in traffic commuting to & from work. I don't have a viable public transportation option to get back and forth from work.

I feel like I'm wasting 10 hours a week on autopilot. What do you guys do during your commute? There's got to be something that I can do to make better use of that time - audiobooks, or a tape recorder, or something.

What do you guys do to make use of long commute times?

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Here are my preferences:

1. Move closer to work.

2. Find a way to work from home as much as possible.

3. When you do need to drive in, podcasts are much better than the radio.

4. Find a car that you love to drive. This may be easier for me, since I generally enjoy driving, even in traffic.

Now, I'm in a situation where I can easily move, it's easy for me to work from home and I can afford cars I love to drive.

I moved considerably closer to work and positioned myself nicely in relation to the public transit infrastructure. 20-30 minutes driving, 45 minutes if I ride my bicycle to an express bus stop a few miles away, 1 hour by bus using the closest bus stop to my home and 1 hour if I go by bicycle.

This is awesome, because I have so many options available. If there's a huge thunderstorm or a blizzard, I can walk a block to a bus stop and get picked up by this horribly slow bus that takes all side-streets and stops at practically every major intersection to pick people up or drop people off. But it beats driving, and I can read, or crack open my laptop and do whatever.

If I want a good workout, I have a 14.5 mile bike ride to work, and I can pull it off in about an hour, which is great cardio. In the summer time, I can get 2 hours of cardio, save money on gas and parking fees, and spend only an hour more on my commute than if I drove to the office. I essentially get a two-hour workout in one hour.

Then, in cold or rainy weather that's not terrible, I can ride my bike to the express bus stop and get downtown in time to hang out with some friends over a cup of coffee before work.

Moving closer to the office is probably the best thing I ever did for myself.

Some podcasts are excellent. Check out radiolab.org

edit: I have family+friends 4 hours away and gf 2 hours away, so I spend a huge amount of time behind the wheel as well. I download courses from iTunes U, OCW or individual universities' web sites. I also follow a few podcasts. The skeptic's guide to the universe is decent, radiolab is great. I'm half way done through Yale's Bob Schiller's "Financial Markets" class, and its been great.

I agree. I also listen to Planet Money and This American Life regularly. Both great shows, but Radiolab is awesome.

Audiobooks.

I've listened to probably more than 20 in the last two years ranging from the Count of Monte Cristo to all of Malcom Gladwell's work to Investing for Dummies. It's a great way to make the most out of your commute because if you're like me, you probably don't have time to read all of those in your free time anyway.

You can pick up an iTrip (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itripauto) for about $60 at Target to use with your iPhone and audiobooks usually range from about $10 to $30.

As a start, I highly recommend Bill Byrson's unabridged A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I've listened to four times now (and counting!).

In addition to the ideas for what do to while driving, consider avoiding driving during rush hour to cut down on the time it takes. Even if your work schedule isn't flexible, this might still work for you. Depending on what kind of exercise you're into, maybe you you can do the drive earlier to avoid rush hour and then spend that pre-work time at a gym near (or, if you're lucky, on site at) work. I've worked at companies that had on site gyms and showers. One site I was at had a huge building complex large enough that just walking different routes in it, including stairs, etc. was a viable exercise option, and quite a few people took advantage of that, particularly when the weather wasn't good enough to walk or run outside. You could do something similar after work, too, depending on how desirable that is with respect to your personal life - spending time at or near your work location while the evening traffic gets past its worst. Doesn't have to be exercise - could be reading or working on some personal programming project on a laptop at a Starbucks or some similar place near your work. Maybe you could find (or start) a chess or go club that meets some evenings near your work, etc., depending on what you're into.

I'm in a similar situation:

1. Podcasts - Venture Voice and The Moth are two easy recommends. You could try to get old Radio GoDaddy podcasts back when they had entrepreneurs on.

2. Audio Books - Audible.com/Amazon/Library/etc. are great sources. I've managed to listen to quite a few.

3. Satellite radio: I got a cheap XM set and rigged it up to my car a couple months back. I haven't listened to terrestrial radio since. Just about any music you'd want, plus news from all kinds of sources.

Edit to add Satellite radio

That sucks. Any way to work a 4-day week? Or pry a telecommuting day out of their cold hands? [Unless you're the boss, in which case strike that last remark.]

I could work from home on some days if I really wanted to, but I've got a team of people that get their direction from me which complicates things.

Do you have the clout in your office to switch from a 5-day-8-hour week to a 4-day-10-hour week? The effect on your working day is negligible, especially as it can often take you out of rush hour traffic and you'll likely leave and arrive home around the same time (supposing you don't live in an area where the rush hour is more like three-hours).

You then have an extra day, essentially a 3-day-weekend every week. This can actually dramatically decrease costs, not only time wise and fuel wise, but if you have children who have to go into daycare or to a babysitter after school then it means lower childcare expenses. Not only that, but having a friday or monday off means you can get groceries and such done during the day and well out of the supermarket rush hours; you wouldn't believe how empty stores can be even before a major holiday.

Swapping, not only yourself but your workers too, to a 4 day week could keep you able to be there directing people, it'll at least take 1/5 of your wasted commute time and it could potentially shorten your commute dramatically if you commute time gets pushed outside of rush hour. It could seriously raise the happiness level in your office, and thus the productivity ('a happy worker is a busy worker'). Hopefully this is a suggestion that could work for you.

Did you try it yourself? I am asking because I was thinking about that for myself, and I could do that, but then, if you work 10 hours + 0.5 hour (lunch) + 2 hours travel, then for those 4 days, you are off for the whole day, basically. For example, when you leave home at 8am, you will return at 8:30pm. In that case I would come home when my kid is already going to sleep. I am not sure if that's better comparing to 5d-8h.

There's an added benefit in terms of time for me. Most of my commute time is due to traffic. Without traffic the commute is 25 or 30 minutes each way. If I were to switch over to a longer schedule like this, my commute would probably drop from 2 hours a day to 1.25 or 1 hour a day due to missing rush hour.

In my last position, I worked a somewhat later schedule for precisely this reason. My communte wasn't as long as yours, but it still saved me probably 15 - 30 minutes each day.

I remember at one of my jobs, the commute for a 9am start took ~45 minutes. The 9:30am start took 15 minutes. Instead of leaving at 8:15 and arriving home at 5:45, I left home at 9:15 and arrived home at almost 5:45, usually 5:50.

I have worked these before, and my family has tried these. My mum is a nurse, so she frequently worked 13-hour days 3 days a week when I grew up. My dad worked in IT for a long time, by the end he worked exclusively these shifts before he retired to start his own business.

I agree it's ultimately harder, especially with younger children, on those days that you'll work harder. It will inevitably be a personal choice whether seeing them a bit every night is more important than seeing them a lot on one night.

All I can say is from personal experience as a child with a parent who worked those shifts (I haven't got kids yet, so I can't speak from the parental perspective). My dad regularly worked those shifts, and when I was younger it was certainly tough (its a little different in your teen years when you're up later and more independent), but the fridays he got off were always worth it. I remember getting off school and we actually had the time to go to a theme park on my birthday (I believe he switched his shifts to get a tuesday off) or that we'd get to go to the movies or bowling before they got packed on a friday evening.

I can't say not having your dad there wouldn't be hard on a kid (in the last few years, and the reason why he left the job, he had to work away from home so then the 4 day week really helped as he wasn't home for 3 nights instead of 4 nights), but from my own experience the quality time certainly made up for it and in hindsight I think I actually preferred when he had the 4 day weeks.

Perhaps it would be more of a win-win when they're in high school rather than junior school as with the amount of homework that gets dumped on the teens, they'll barely notice if you're an hour or two later home.

I suppose it all depends on you as the parent, your spouse/partner and your kids. 5 days may be best for you, 4 days may be better for others, but a trial-run for a month might give you a clue as to which you and your family prefer.

If you were disciplined about it and left home at 6:30am instead of 8am, you could save time on the road, and then still be home at 6:30pm for dinner.

This may not be a bad idea. I wouldn't say it's a clout thing, but I can work any schedule I'd like as long as I get things done.

We're a pretty happy office already, and some people here are already using a 9 day out of 10 work schedule. I'll think some on this. Thank you!

Consider getting your people used to your being remote one day a week -- make it consistent. Speaking generally and anecdotally, a lot of "panic" seems to actually be somewhat schedule-able; it adjusts to circumstances.

Keep the option open to drive in when it becomes necessary. Whether a "must be present" meeting, crunch time, or the shit hits the fan and being onsite outweighs the drive time.

If you can't make the timing regular, you may be screwed. If you're remote on random days, people are less likely to adjust well.

I worked with a fellow who, due to his brilliance and historical knowledge, often ended up being THE go to guy in such scenarios. Nonetheless, he made remote days work. (It helped that our team was becoming increasingly virtual, anyways, as we absorbed new members from an acquisition, etc.) People learned that if they needed him face to face, they'd better bring the topic up before his remote day (or wait).

He loved how much more he was able to get done without people stopping by his cube multiple times each hour.

Get this (unless you have a very small laptop, like a netbook) and put it on your dash: http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4205894

Then, get this: http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/landing/consumer.asp (DNS will probably fail in a noisy car, but worth a shot)

Dictate code on the road.

Edit: Be sure to configure a bunch of commands/templates in DNS so you can generate blocks of helper code.

Edit: Potentially related video (haven't watched, just found it while Googling) http://revver.com/video/348539/driving-writing-with-dragon-n...

I don't understand how one can share one's attention between driving and a screen without increasing the risk to get into an accident.

The display is just for quick glances to make sure the software rendered a For-loop template instead of "fruit loops". Otherwise, I would have recommended a bigger display.

IMO, you can get good enough at this that the amount of distraction is pretty small. Equivalent, perhaps, to the amount of distraction involved in changing radio stations. But, you would need some self-discipline to achieve this.

Also, I am not really talking about creating compileable code. You would use this to mockup a solution. Like pseudo-code, only a bit more fleshed-out.

Edit: I didn't address the main point of your reply...

"I don't understand how one can share one's attention between driving and a screen without increasing the risk to get into an accident."

Yes, using this idea you might be increasing your risk of an accident.

This is an interesting idea, but honestly I'd probably end up rear-ending someone if I did it.

However, have you ever tried programming using text-to-speech? It strikes me as an experience that would be maddening.

I have thought about taking a voice recorder with me just to dictate ideas though.

"This is an interesting idea, but honestly I'd probably end up rear-ending someone if I did it."

Yes, this idea works best for long stretches of road with little traffic. The 45 mile stretch of highway I drive on is isolated.

"However, have you ever tried programming using text-to-speech? It strikes me as an experience that would be maddening."

Try downloading the evaluation version of DNS and give it a spin. I think you'll feel the potential pretty quickly, especially if you try making custom commands. The cumbersome nature of the speech-to-text interface may prove too much, but it's worth a try right?

What is maddening to me is giving up ~2 hours of the most productive time of the day. I was even desperate enough to try programming on a phone (a Peek email device).

"I have thought about taking a voice recorder with me just to dictate ideas though."

I've tried this as well, and it is not ideal. If you have ever sat down to design something and within minutes you abandon the design to start coding, you'll understand. Coding is the low-energy state.

Podcasts. Lots of them. Get a wide variety (I have documentaries, language lessons, venture voice, this american life, word of the day, historical, social science, comedy etc.). If you're worried about iPod/iPhone space, set it to just sync only the last 10 of each podcast. That way you always have something available, no matter what your mood.

I take it you are driving, but for people that get public transport I would plead Do Not Read Newspapers - they will only make you feel anxious, depressed or angry at the start of the day. It's more enjoyable and effective to read a book on a subject you want to learn about or something fictional for escapism.

I have around the same commute time. Lectures in the car don't work for me. Language audio lessons such as Pimsleur were a little better but still require a bit too much concentration. I can however listen to audio books and follow along.

Glad I did a text search before commenting so I could vote you up for Pimsleur: I found the Pimsleur language learning approach great for the car when the commute is mostly on a freeway rather than a road with traffic lights.

I've had a 2 hour commute for about 5 years now, and over the years I've used Pimsleur's language cds to learn Japanese and Italian. Today I just didn't feel like driving, so I'm typing this while riding a commuter express bus.

Beware--some people may be better at multitasking than others. I've tried Pimsleur tapes while driving, but didn't feel I could both adequately maintain situational awareness of the road, and have the slightest idea what the speaker on the tape just said--let alone repeat it with the correct accent.

This is a good point; I already know I can't use the cellphone while driving because it turns me (and most people I guess) into a terrible driver.

Pimsleur language courses are a pretty cool idea though. My Spanish has deteriorated to the point of essentially useless (I was never fluent).

For $20 a month you can get two books from audible. Their catalog is pretty decent and it is a good way to keep on top of your read list.

I've also been enjoying the "How Stuff Works" podcasts. Their "Stuff you missed in history class" is especially interesting. Lots of stuff from the well known "Pompeii's excavation" to the esoteric "The great molasses flood of 1916".

The great molasses flood? Try the great beer flood of 1814! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

Wow. Both of those events are incredible! I wonder how many large storage tanks like that are in urban areas nowadays..

Probably vastly more, but AFAIK most large storage tanks are required to be inspected for structural weakness every so often.

The big concern for urban centres today are LPG storage tanks as they can BLEVE. It doesn't usually require any structural failure, just plain bad luck.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__1Ym_F94CE&feature=relat...

This was in north Toronto last year. IIRC a tanker caught fire at a propane refuelling facility, you can actually see the shockwave caused by the BLEVE, which was quickly followed by the massive fireball (not all BLEVE's explode, it can happen with any heated liquid from superheated water in a boiler to liquid nitrogen warming to room temperature in an enclosed vessel).

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl-JgyQA7u0&feature=relat...

This is a demo video, with a decent explanation for anyone who doesn't know what a BLEVE is. It sometimes seems like the safety mechanism doesn't help, but it really does by controlling the release of energy. Fire fighters usually try to cool the tank rather than put out the fire (usually in these cases it's too dangerous to get close enough to actually try to fight the preliminary fire) as the longer the tank stays intact, the less dangerous the explosion will be. If it doesn't vent at all, you eventually get this supersized and with authentic flames:

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWmONHipVo&feature=fvw

Yeah, I actually live in Toronto and there was news coverage for days after that explosion...

I can see your point about LPG storage tanks. It's interesting how many dangers lie all about us in the modern world but we either don't know about them or simply ignore them...

Large portable propane tanks can only be changed by licensed operators for exactly this reason, because people negligently allowed valves to either get damaged or corrode. This creates the potential for a BLEVE, which if it occurs next to the house (which all these tanks are inevitably placed) it can either burn the house down or, in case of solid brick houses, has actually destroyed the walls.

I know back in England an old house on the main road had a BLEVE from one of these large tanks, it collapsed the rear wall and the interior structural walls, meaning the entire place was torn down. Virtually every window on the street, and the adjacent street, were shattered by the blast (including vehicle windows). The fire fighters believed the tank had been damaged by a falling slate roof tile, and the fence provided the fuel to cause the BLEVE. A year or two later and the UK brought out a law requiring large tanks to be changed by professionals, I believe Canada has similar regulations as well.

I only know I wouldn't want an explosion like that happening near a cottage (where I've also seen a lot of the larger tanks).

Depending on the kind of transportation, audiobooks, or a kindle with some good PDFs.

If you can manage the latter then you can look at what stuff gets posted to HN that ends up on scribd, put them on your e-reader and you'll have your commute fly by, you might have to take detours :)

Does text-to-speech work in a reasonable fashion on the Kindle?

That's a good question, I don't have one (yet) they haven't released the DX with 3G here in NL yet.

That's what I'm waiting for to hop on the bandwagon, it seems like wasted money to buy the small one first then to upgrade.

Text to speech is surprisingly not-too-bad on the K2. I recently was reading a book, and pretty seamlessly moved it over to speech while I did some laundry, then picked up where I left off.

If you played with speech synthesis in the 80s or 90s, you'll still hear that faint Swedish? accent, but really, it's totally usable in my opinion.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm in the same boat. Does anyone have any recommendations for podcasts or audiobooks that discuss/teach various concepts in computer science or software development without being impossible to follow while in a car?

I tried listening various lectures, but at some point it becomes too difficult to follow because I'm unable to write down/work through anything as I'm driving. I found a few podcasts, but the content was largely hit or miss.

Any suggestions would be awesome.

Not quite Comp Sci, but I like to listen to NPR's Science Friday podcasts. I have to rewind a bit once in a while if I have to pay attention to traffic, but it's nice to be able to listen to them, instead of "wasting" time listening to the radio.

The Teaching Company; sometimes I look forward to traffic.

1. Become a freelancer.

2. Get a spacious car where you can work in the back,

3. Get a high-speed UMTS/HSDPA subscription.

4. Get a driver that earns at least 50% less per hour than you.

5. Work from your car and bill the time.

This sounds totally nausea inducing. I get a little ill just thinking about it. Blech..

I mostly listen to jazz or public radio, sometimes business podcasts. It's not a waste of time: it's time to relax, especially the commute home.

Sorry, just saw you're in traffic. My commute is mostly on rural roads, no traffic to speak of and much more relaxing than city/crowded interstate driving.

Listen to college lectures in the Great Courses series. Your library probably has some. http://www.teach12.com/

LA has vanpools...maybe you could look into that in Phoenix?

I work with my notebook and 3G modem. It works well enough to VPN into work - wish I could do some paid work on the side while telecommuting :-)

If you can cycle your commute then you're getting fit and can save on your gym time (and membership fees).

I'm a huge fan of riding one's bike around. However, if it's one hour by car, it's likely to be significantly longer by bicycle unless traffic is really bad.

I'd probably look at moving close enough to where I could ride my bike.

I don't know where the op is situated, but it's surprising how frequently bad enough traffic occurs in Atlanta. Even what seems to be a decently long distance (20 mi) can be covered on bike faster than that commute.

Hills and unsafe roads permitting anyway.

Yeah, unfortunately bicycling is not an option. I did that for a little while at a job that I had once that was 10 miles away. It was OK, but it was only really feasible 6 months out of the year - the rest of the year it was hot enough that I was sweaty and gross when I got to the office.

It may not work for your company, but what about making sales calls or taking support calls?

Please don't. It's dangerously distracting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/technology/01distracted.ht...

What makes your public option unviable?

Audio books.

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