Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The Cost of Commuting…

To the untrained eye, it would seem that I spend a lot of time doing things other than working during the day.

I drive carpool, exercise, go to events at my kids’ school, run errands.

If you compare me with someone during the 9-5 hours, there are certainly some days when I am “not working,” (though I would argue in the digital age, that I am actually ‘working’ most of the time b/c 1. I have my phone/email with me and 2. a lot of the time I am thinking about business issues, but I digress.)

However, the 9-5 slot is not the full experience, since there is the cost of commuting.

I don’t spend 60-90 minutes each way engaged in the relatively inefficient commuting process when, typically, people are engaged in less than optimal tasks.

My commute is 40 seconds.

And, if I have to drive somewhere, it is with a specific purpose and, typically, I’ll set those meetings up during non-rush hours.

As we move into a new world of work (you may enjoy this video with Adriana where we discuss it), we’ll all want to challenge our assumptions about what working and productivity really means.

9-5 in one place every day makes a lot of sense in a manufacturing-based economy. Not always the case in an true information economy.

blog comments powered by Disqus
 
View Comments