I used to work about seven minutes (driving time) away from my home. It was great for when I needed to stop by the apartment at some point during the day.
Then, I worked from home for a year. Commuting time: about ten seconds, as I stumbled out of bed and crawled the five feet to my desk.
Now, though, I work downtown again, and have a 40-minute, door-to-desk commute. Seems ideal, as I use the fifteen minutes it takes to walk to the Metro for exercise[sup]*[/sup], and the twenty minutes on the train is for reading. The only wasted time is the five minutes it takes to get to my office from the Dupont Circle station.
[sup]*[/sup] On rainy days like today, I bite the bullet and drive to the Metro station, costing me $2.25 for parking.
My current commute is ten miles - about a 15 or 20 minute drive. Long enough to wind down in the car if I’ve had a bad day, and short enough that it doesn’t annoy me. I used to have a 5 minute commute, but the job annoyed me too much and I left after 3 year.
My worst commute time-wise was when I was working downtown and took the train, then walk a half mile. It was an hour and a half each way. My worst commute distance-wise was driving 45 miles each way from the SW burbs of Chicago to the NE burbs. I moved after 5 months and cut the commute to about 25 minutes.
