>I would say working less for money is the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time.
moving closer to work has similar effects on your free time without cutting in to your free money.
but yeah, I agree. It's hard to have time to work on your stuff if you work 40 hours a week, especially if you need some family or social time. working part time helps a lot, if you can pull it off. Again, though, be mindful of the commute and reduce the number of days a week you work rather than reducing the number of hours a day you work.
But really, commuting is impossible to avoid if you work in consulting, where your customer changes from time to time. You can't expect to move as often. My work used to be only 10 minute walk away ...
> moving closer to work has similar effects on your free time without cutting in to your free money.
Depends on house prices. I remember a study about those prices around London, and they found a nice relation between duration of commute vs house price. (I did some calculations, and assuming a reasonable hourly wage and interest rate (to convert the house price into a rent): each minute was bought at less than what you'd get for working that minute.)
moving closer to work has similar effects on your free time without cutting in to your free money.
but yeah, I agree. It's hard to have time to work on your stuff if you work 40 hours a week, especially if you need some family or social time. working part time helps a lot, if you can pull it off. Again, though, be mindful of the commute and reduce the number of days a week you work rather than reducing the number of hours a day you work.