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Leaving Early May Cost You Time
markmcb writes "OmniNerd has an interesting traffic article demonstrating how leaving early for work may cost you time. Brandon Hansen uses a year's worth of data collected on his urban drive to and from work along with statistical analysis to show the effects of varying departure times and considering external factors like nearby school districts' schedules. In the end, a minor shift in his departure time results in saving driving hours equivalent to over a third of the vacation time given annually by his employer."
I do remote sysadmin so it takes me a few seconds to get from bed to where I work (about 40 centimeters). The problem is the time it takes for me to actually wake up.
Unfortunately, he did not take into account the time it took to do this analysis, and now he has even less free time.
That avoiding rush hour traffic could save you time? I appluad this excellent study, and I hope this team continues their fantastic work!
That is why I am leaving in late April.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
"... In the end, a minor shift in his departure time results in saving driving hours equivalent to over a third of the vacation time given annually by his employer."
;)
In France, this means you would gain 2 additional months of free time.
This is such a half baked study and conclusion that I wonder why the hell it's on /.
You must be new here.
The ideal time to leave is two minutes after your employer. They won't know whether you're working twenty minutes late or three hours late.
The rule is that your work start time and end time should add up to 13.
I usually wait longer than that, primarily because it has happened more than once that my car was following his out of the carpark, or we waited side-by-side at the next set of traffic lights.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
I have a funny recollection about one programmer I've worked with. He's just got hired. He asked to allow him to arrive to work *really* early so to beat the traffic, and got ok. So he was coming to work around 7 am. The rest of the bunch was showing up sometime between 9 and 10. From 7 to 9 am the guy was practically doing nothing, and I mean nothing: reading newspapers and playing Solitair on PC (that was the time before the company got connected to Internet). Of course he was always promptly leaving at 3 pm. So not only he's managed to beat the traffic but had about 2 hours at work doing nothing. He was so successful in that that eventually he became a consultant (in the same company). No kidding.
When starting a sentence with a number, the number should be written as a word. Sorry, but things like that really raise my blood pressure.
By the way, do you remember that saying about living in glasshouses and throwing stones?
is the wind and my warmup. I usually have a headwind in the morning, and I'm not warmed up, so it takes about 28-30 min. A good tailwind on the way home and I can make the nine miles in under 26.
First post
And thanks to the better welfare system there, still get paid more ;)
he was coming back from lunch, obviously. :P
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sure boss, we're doing the same amount of hours, we're just coming in 2 hours late and leaving 2 hours later than we normally do. What I'm fired?
God spoke to me.
I could never figure out how I could leave for work 10 minutes earlier and still get there at the same damn time. I knew traffic patterns were killing my commute time.
Not to mention stagger to your driving ... thing.
Now the interesting thing, which I have noticed is that when I throw the usual routine on its head and add some mutation to my search, everything works completely differently. You wake up at an insane hour of the morning and drink coffee. You then get on one of the first few trains to depart, these are invariably on time; I suppose the train drivers responsible enough to get up early are the most competent and the least likely to end up in Scotland by accident. This train is empty and free of smelly arm-pits. It is also fast and direct, requiring no further changes. Why this is not the case with the later trains, is beyond me.
The general spirit at this time of the morning, is one of champions. "I woke up before the world, therefore I am a man of power, ambition and lots of loud alarm clocks." You then stroll at leisure from station to work place with a trendy coffee in hand. The work done on the train is then casually uploaded onto workstation and you continue on a roll, glancing at those lazy sods strolling in at 9am. Your spirits are on top of the world. Come mid-afternoon, you're tired, but you've been there since the early hours. If you can't cope you can responsibly excuse yourself due to hard work and head home, stating that your work will be continued on the train. This is then valued, given that the announcement is made up front.
Somehow leaving early gives you a buzz. One should be warned, however, that insanely early starts for more than two days in a row can be hazardous to your health and lead to death by foolishly strolling in front of an old granny's very slow push bike.
[1]( George Michael lives there, and obviously never takes the train. )