{"id":50082,"date":"2019-11-11T18:58:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T02:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=50082"},"modified":"2019-11-11T18:58:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T02:58:38","slug":"commuting-stocktake-de-stressing-my-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/commuting-stocktake-de-stressing-my-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"Commuting stocktake: De-stressing my schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

My commute is a big chunk of my working life these days. I\u2019m more than five years into a job for which I commute about 3 hours a day (1.5 hours there and back). It\u2019s usually a two-leg journey\u2014train then bus\u2014and occasionally a three-leg one\u2014two trains then bus.<\/p>\n

I love my job and the people I work with. It is a dream job that I didn\u2019t think existed.<\/p>\n

I feel profoundly grateful for finding a space in academia where I can make a difference and in which I am (relatively) secure. My manager is sympathetic to my commute and I am able to work flexibly on a consistent basis, whether that\u2019s working from home or leaving earlier to avoid the peak-hour crush.<\/p>\n

Even so, if I leave this job, it will be because of the commute.<\/p>\n

I wrote about\u00a0starting this extended commuting life<\/a>\u00a0back when I was a month or so into my job. Even though I have become used to it and, at times, even look forward to the gift of time to reflect or do such things that can be done on a train or bus, I know it takes a steady and often stealthy toll.<\/p>\n

Studies and articles say repeatedly that long commutes have negative consequences, and\u00a0the longer the commute, the lower a worker\u2019s job satisfaction<\/a>. Good salaries don\u2019t make up for the deterioration in physical and mental health to which commutes are shown to contribute. Bus and train commutes don\u2019t stack up as well against walking or cycling commutes.<\/p>\n

This all seems like a no-brainer to me. Walking and cycling are self-determined types of transport: you choose when you want to go and you can go. When you\u2019re using public transport, you can\u2019t. Whether your train or bus turns up is dependent on schedules, traffic, vehicles working properly, and at times your ability to push yourself into a wall of humanity that is already bulging out of the train carriage so that you don\u2019t have to wait for the next train because then you\u2019ll miss the bus and have to wait for the next one and you\u2019ll be late to the workshop you have to facilitate\u2026 ahem.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t write this to complain about my commute\u2014it is what it is, and it was my choice to take this job\u2014but to share some of the ways I\u2019ve lowered the stress levels associated with it. Most of my commute stress stems from overcrowding, surprise delays and cancellations, and the occasional train meltdowns that mean my work day is derailed (!). These actions would also be relevant to those who don\u2019t have a long commute but may need to de-stress their schedule.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t schedule things for 9am starts.<\/b><\/p>\n

9:30am is fine, and people don\u2019t even care that it\u2019s 30 mins later. Lots of other people come in slightly later because of school or childcare drop-offs and slightly delayed morning meeting time ensures that they are included. When I meet people at 8:00am in the city, it\u2019s because it\u2019s on my way in to campus and allows me to hold that meeting and spend, more or less, a whole day on campus, too.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m not rushing in to a meeting or workshop, my stress levels are immediately much lower. Most of the time, I\u2019m on campus before 9am and working in my office already, but the idea that I\u00a0have to be\u00a0<\/b><\/i>on campus by that time freaks me out.<\/p>\n

Ensure those around you are familiar with your work habits, and give yourself the best chance to work well consistently.<\/b><\/p>\n

It makes it a\u00a0lot\u00a0<\/i>easier when people know the days I tend to work from home and are happy to let me join a meeting remotely or reschedule if they want face-to-face. I don\u2019t have my schedule in my signature because there are anomalies in my \u201caverage\u201d week.<\/p>\n

I will tell those who need to know what my plan for the week looks like if it deviates from the average, but I don\u2019t need to justify or explain it to anyone else. Meeting-free, work-from-home days are fantastic, as they are the days when I\u2019m most likely to churn through work and make progress on projects and planning. Because of this, I try to keep my work-from-home days as meeting-free as possible. In saying this, I try very hard to keep my entire life as meeting-free as possible, so this is not a big stretch.<\/p>\n

On the home front, my family is trained well to know when I\u2019m working from home and what that means in terms of their being able to interrupt me. If I get home \u201cearly\u201d on a given day, they also know that means I do a couple of hours\u2019 work from home.<\/p>\n

No meetings after 4:30pm.<\/b><\/p>\n

With a long commute, it really matters when I leave. I will work later at times, but I try not to be later too often. Being later can often mean not getting home till 8pm and beyond. One of the disadvantages (possibly the only\u00a0<\/i>disadvantage!) of not travelling in peak hour later in the evening is the reduced frequency of public transport. With multiple legs to take, this can have a compounding effect and I end up at home much later. When I\u2019ve been caught up in train meltdowns and get home closer to 9pm, I know I have to be back on that station platform again the next morning in about 10 hours.<\/p>\n

In essence, much of the de-stressing of my schedule is in managing others\u2019 and my own expectations of what my working week looks like, complete with the long commute and its potential delays. None of them are blanket rules and I make exceptions every once in a while.<\/p>\n

Maintaining the boundaries requires a certain amount of confidence and assertiveness and also a flexible employer, but I remind myself that the prime aim in all this is to make my work practices as sustainable as possible.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want just to survive my working weeks. I want to enjoy them and give my best possible self to my work, my colleagues and my family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My commute is a big chunk of my working life these days. I\u2019m more than five years into a job for which I commute about 3 hours a day (1.5 hours there and back). It\u2019s usually a two-leg journey\u2014train then bus\u2014and occasionally a three-leg one\u2014two trains then bus. I love my job and the people […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":50083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86115],"tags":[295469],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-50082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-commuting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCommuting stocktake: De-stressing my schedule - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/commuting-stocktake-de-stressing-my-schedule\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commuting stocktake: De-stressing my schedule - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My commute is a big chunk of my working life these days. 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