No seriously - this wasn’t my attempt at a clickbait title but a change that I believe has been pivotal in my adult life as both a professional and father/husband/community leader.
What would you do with an extra 500 hours a year?
Maybe pick up a new skill, maybe master and existing skill. Maybe donate your time and energy towards your community. Maybe just spend more time with family. Given you are doing something productive most of the time then in most cases you, those around you and your community will likely benefit from it.
Where does the time come from?
Stay with me here: the time (at least for me) comes from not commuting. I know I know…. cliche in this day and age as we continue to have the wars over return to office and all that jazz. I’m not looking to start a fight nor point fingers at what landed me in those positions. Heck, I CHOSE to work at those places that required such a commute because I didn’t know any better. I won’t argue for or against return to office/hybrid/etc. It works from some and not for others and really comes down to the individual.
Now my commute is the picture above - I’m standing at my back door with coffee in hand and my office is maybe 10 steps away.
Importance
Why is this important to me? Because of that 500 hours - or closer to 470 to be more precise.
That time has done amazing things for all aspects of my life. I used to dread the commute before/during/after it did nothing but negative things to my mental health.
So when I started working for a fully remote company in 2022, I wondered what some of the high-level returns were….
Some basic fun numbers for about 1 year:
Time saved: 470 hours of not commuting Distance not traveled: 21,000 miles not added to my vehicle Fuel Costs saved: $4,500 at the average gas price in 2021 of $3.13
Now double that…. yes the costs to fuel and vehicle maintenance would be cash out of my pocket (my employer never covered these) - but nearly 1,000 hours over those two years returned to me. I treasure this time and do my best to remember to put it to good use.
What would I do?
In the 2022-2023 school year I was able to teach a high school Computer Science class - each day totalling maybe 1.5-2hrs if you consider prep/teaching/and the short drive. That alone was a good break even.
Taking a break from that this year, spending time with family and the birth of my son.
Taking on new skills and challenging myself in new ways both mentally and physically.
The possibilities here are endless and each day is a new adventure. Will I learn something new? Will I work on mastering an existing skill? or will I simply step outside and find ways to engage meaningfully with my family and community. I never have to trade my time for commuting and that is extremely valuable to me.