Hot in summer, freezing in winter, and always crowded; there’s little to love about commuting. Most of us have to do it, thanks in no small part to the strange way cities expanded during the Industrial Revolution, when few residential buildings were built in the city centre, and were instead clustered in a doughnut shape around the CBD [Central Business District]. In 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled that, for workers without a fixed office, commuting counts as paid work and should therefore be compensated. However, this won’t matter because other research says we’ll all die young, obese, and frazzled from commuting for longer than 30 minutes. (Experts, huh!) It seems the only sensible thing to do would be to quit the commute. Some studies have found that commuting further than 31 miles each way may shave years off your life expectancy, and women are most at risk. Furthermore, if you take a bus or a train to work and the journey lasts longer than half an hour, the impact on your personal wellbeing can be severely detrimental. This is bad news for most people living in Greater London, who have an average commute of 46 minutes . It’s another strike against the capital: The commuting average for the rest of the UK, according to the Department for Transport, is just 25 minutes. Although Scottish people should beware – since 2015, those living north of the border have seen a 22% increase in commuting time, up to 27 minutes. Being told to reduce your commute is like being told to buy a penthouse flat with a swimming pool. It sounds unrealistic and (sigh) is probably just another inevitable consequence of being a millennial in 2017. But if there’s one positive change to make this year, it would be to try to cut down the time you spend commuting. Do yourself this favour, and you may find you enjoy work more (plus increase the time you get to spend at home in your PJs). Aware of my privileged position as a young, unattached person with no kids, I’ve always paid more to live centrally. This has meant my commute has never taken more than 15 minutes. Usually I cycle, and zip around central London quite easily. The rent may be cripplingly high – but at least this way I avoid shelling out thousands for a rail season ticket (upwards of £5,000 in some parts of the country) or tube pass (a Zone 1 annual travel card currently costs £1,320). For this, I am eternally grateful. There are many without this luxury of choice. For Elena, who lives near St Albans, where she chose to buy a house was completely based on her commute. “I was commuting 40 mins when living at my mum's and now it's 15-20 mins if I time it right, while my husband has gone from 1 hr to 40 mins, with both of us driving.” Choosing a shorter commute should, according to a study conducted by Erika Sandow at the University of Umeå in Sweden, make us healthier and happier. Squeezing onto a cramped bus, or experiencing delay after delay on the train raises our blood pressure, which in turn can lead to anxiety and in some cases, eventually, a stroke. Sandow’s study found no increase in the rate of death among men, while European women – especially those working low-income jobs – commuting more than 30 miles a day could expect a shorter lifespan. There are no clear reasons for this. One thought is the ongoing gender pay gap ; perhaps our male commuting counterparts are happy to make a longer journey for greater compensation. Either way, this sucks, and we should all pay heed to the demands of time on our body.