Marchetti’s Constant is the idea that, throughout human history—from cave dwellers to ancient Greeks to modern-day New Yorkers—people tend to commute for about an hour a day:
30 minutes out, 30 minutes home.
Proposed by Cesare Marchetti, the constant suggests that people tend to organize their lives so that daily commuting adds up to roughly 30 minutes each way, so when travel gets faster, people usually don’t save time—they travel farther.
Across centuries and technologies, the pattern persists. Regardless of method or mode of transportation available, human beings tend to spend about an hour a day traveling to work.
If this is true, then bucking Marchetti’s Constant can make a real difference in your life. Not only can it return valuable time to you, but it can also give you an advantage over the competition.
For example:
For the past 27 years, I have lived less than ten minutes from my workplace.
Twenty minutes per day of commuting at the most.
More often, less than 15 minutes per day.
I work 185 days per year as a teacher, or about 4,995 days over a 27-year teaching career.
Had I been operating under Marchetti’s Constant, I would have spent 4,995 hours commuting over the past 27 years, or 208 total days spent in my car, traveling to and from work.
Almost eight days per year.
Instead, I’ve spent about 52 days commuting during that same 27-year period, or less than two days in total.
Still a horrendous number, but a hell of a lot better than 208 days and eight days per year.
Avoid Marchetti’s Constant, and you’ll live a richer, happier, healthier, more productive life, provided you don’t dither that extra time on stupid things like social media.
Just imagine what you could get done with five additional days per year. Just imagine how much more you could exercise, read, bake sourdough bread, organize your coin collection, learn to play the glockenspiel, and dance?
Avoiding Marchetti’s Constant could be life-changing.
Admittedly, sometimes you have no control over your commute. Maybe you work in a city that is less accessible than suburban and rural environments. Maybe you change jobs often and can’t constantly uproot your family. Sometimes you’ll need to commute an hour a day, even though you’d like to avoid it at all costs (and you should), but when possible, living close to your place of employment can reclaim precious hours and give you advantages over others that can yield meaningful results.
I know that’s been the case for me for most of my life.
And when I finally retire from teaching, things will get even better. Though I will be traveling more for speaking and consulting, the majority of my work will require a commute of about 19 seconds to my office, which will be glorious.
Even though my current commute is only about ten minutes per day, those savings will be meaningful if spent well, and I intend to spend them well.
Minutes matter if you make them matter. If I do anything well, it’s making every minute matter because I know how finite they are.
If you can avoid Marchetti’s Constant, do it. Live a longer life by recapturing those wasted hours, days, and even years spent getting to the play where you work.
