How to Shorten Your Commute to Work

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Do you want to shorten your commute to work?

Are you looking for tips to help you arrive on time to your desk, workstation, or office space with minutes to spare?

Shortening one’s commute may seem like a pipe dream, but in fact it is entirely achievable.

You just need to know how and where to look at your routine in order to streamline it.

With just a few small adjustments, you may find you have several more minutes in your hands!

In this post, you’ll find offer several tips to help you shorten your commute to work.

Try mixing one or more of these tips to cut down on your travel time every single week.

Leave a few minutes earlier from home.

It may sound a bit odd, but leaving a few minutes earlier from your home can potentially shorten the amount of time you spend commuting.

It all has to do with timing. How can this be?

Well, every rush hour has peaks and valleys of activity.

Peak rush hour means more people, while off-peak hours means, you guessed, it fewer people.

Fewer people means less crowding and delays on roads and public transportation.

Ultimately, you’ll want do your best to catch the tail end of off-peak rush hour. This is just before things get way too hectic.

You can do this by experimenting with your daily routine. Catch an earlier train, bus, or ferry. Leave ten minutes earlier from your home.

You may avoid large crowds of people or miss the predictable 7 A.M. interstate traffic snarl.  

Change your exit strategy.

You probably know the closest train station stop or highway exit to your office.

On first glance, this makes perfect sense; the closest stop or exit is the shortest distance to your place of work. In many cases, however, this doesn’t translate smoothly to the amount of time it takes you to travel from said stop or exit.

You may be spending more time to travel a shorter distance without even realizing it. This all depends on the physical structure of a highway or station exit, the density of office buildings, and numbers of commuters.

Consider taking the stop or exit before or after your normal stop or exit. Doing so may save you several minutes that would have been spent sitting in traffic or waiting for a crowd to dissipate at a subway station.

Perhaps you could take an express train instead of the local and walk a few extra blocks. You may even decide to take an earlier highway exit and take local roads the rest of the way to the office.

Seek out different travel routes and modes of transportation.

Humans are creatures of habit. Once we find one way of doing something (e.g. a commuting routine), we’re loathe to change it.

You may know of one way to get to your place of work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only way.

If you drive to work, consider taking different travel routes. Make use of any combination of local roads, highways, expressways, and byways. You could use a driving or traffic app to help you plan out the quickest route to the office.

If you live in a large metropolitan area, you may have access to different bus, train, trolley, subway, shuttle or ferry lines in your neighborhood.

Why not give them a try over the course of a week or month? You may find taking a different mode of transportation will actually shorten your commute.

Work remotely from home.

This is the ultimate commute shortening technique!

If you work for a company that allows you to work remotely from home, you should seriously consider it. Get in touch with your human resources department, and/or ask your supervisor or boss about your company’s remote work policies.

Once you know how many remote hours are available to you, can plan out your schedule accordingly.

Sure, you may not be able to work remotely every single day of the week. However, having one or two days at your disposal on a regular basis can seriously save you a chunk of commute time over the course of a year.

How about you? Which of the above suggestions are you going to try out? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

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About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

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