My commute last year was a 5 minute walk.

At first I loved it, for the same reasons you listed. But then I started to realize that living so close to work blurred the line between work and life. I couldn't mentally detach from the job after coming home. Even on evenings and weekends I'd think about work.

That's when I realized an important purpose that commuting plays, which is a transition period from work mode to life mode. So now my commute is 15 minutes: short enough that I don't go insane, but long enough to help me put some mental distance between myself and my job.

My commute into work is usually 17 mins. Going home I take a different but sane return route that is predictable and has less traffic but takes 25 minutes. I use my commute time to catch up on tech news and security issues via podcasts. I find this time very valuable. My wife works maybe 6 miles further intown than I do and her commute is 35 minutes in the morning and with no sane return route tends to be 45 to 65 minutes long.

My commute is good for me. Her commute wears on her. She is not tech focused so she does not listen to podcasts.

I would love to walk to work or ride a bike. But with olders kids and school choices being a driving force for where we live that is not possible yet.

We craft our day around the commute. We are up at 4:30 and at the gym by 5:20. We strive for 5 days a week at the gym. We probably average more like 4.5.

With the early rise I have to be in bed by 9PM to 10PM most nights.

Gosh now I'm thinking when my youngest goes to college I move much closer to work. Maybe even rent and not buy since I have 4 more years before I retire.

I'm also lucky at work. I have an office with a door. Power naps most days keep me productive in the afternoon.

You could just use a different ritual, like work out just after coming home.

I've said for many years that any job I can't walk or ride to in less than 30 minutes is not worth it.

I'll either move jobs, or move house to make it shorter than that.

Work from home. Poop any time, eat any time, work from couch, take power naps - life has never been so good.

I don't work from home, but we have toilets, food, couches and nap rooms at work, too.

The only US company I've worked at that was serious about a nap room was Groupon, but that changed part way through my stint there as the office became more crowded.

I am not sure about the nap room situation in Google's mothership. Here in Google Sydney we are doing fine.

I once had a shorter commute, but you still have me beat in experience.

The office building I worked in had an abandoned caretaker's apartment on the roof. (For the Australians, it was in Sydney above the cinemas on George street.) I and a colleague nabbed it for basically nothing and commuted 30 seconds via elevator. It had some benefits, but honestly, it was weird to go entire days without leaving the building, and sometimes it felt like I was always at work.

I once had a "commute" from my bed to the adjoining room.

Now my commute is significantly longer, but most of it is on a train. I walk to the train station, and from the station at the other end to the office, and along the way I listen to music or podcasts or read books on my phone.

If I were driving it every day I would probably go mad.

Ditto for me on the South Coast UK: 4 mins walk from my house to the station, catch the 08.14 train, arrive at destination 08.37, then 10-15 mins walk to the office depending on whether I pop into a shop on the way.

I listen to the news on a radio and catch up with overnight emails from global colleagues on my Galaxy Note phone.

Sorry, I live the same distance from work. And let's be honest with one another, it's totally a 5 minute commute! We WALK 3 minutes to the office (+2 mins additional to grab a coffee enroute).