I was reading in the local newspaper yesterday that the average working Canadian spends approximately 240 hours each year commuting to and from the office. By and large, this time is wasted each day as we fight our way through rush hour traffic or find ourselves squished inside a public transit vehicle. After all, by taking half an hour to travel each way, twiddling our thumbs or listening to some music, we’re not exactly being all that productive.

The study conducted urges people to make better use of that time and they encourage employers to help ease that process by providing employees with more flexibility, much like how I mentioned last week, except now we’re talking about working professionals rather than entry-level youth workers. They suggest that companies allow employees to work four 10-hour days, for example, instead of a standard five day week. Taking this concept further, telecommuting or working-from-home can also drastically increase productivity, because workers would no longer need to actually travel to the office to get any work done. Speaking from my own experience as a freelance writer, I know that working from home has been a fantastic arrangement for me, because I don’t need to physically travel to any office, other than having to walk down the stairs from my bedroom.

The study in the paper also suggests strategies like providing employees with laptops and the like, so that they can get some work done while commuting. This might be a possibly suitable solution for people who take the subway or the bus (assuming that they get a seat and not just a standing spot), but I’d highly recommend against firing up Microsoft Word or Excel while heading down the highway in your car.

What’s your take on maximizing productivity? Is commuting time completely wasted or does it provide a much-needed respite for overworked employees?