In addition, it may be useful to have some sort of mental model of how you value your time. "Seriously, you make six figures and spend an hour a week doing some task you despise to save $5?" However, most people aren't in a position where they can directly trade in, say, an hour of commuting time for a check.

I value my time much more than my space. Hence living with roommates close to work.

Being stuck on a train for an hour isn't the end of the world. But taking the same train ride twice a day, 5 days a week?

I value my time highly (not because I'm some rockstar who bills $300/hr, but because I like having autonomy over my own life). Assuming I sleep 8 hrs/day, work 8 hrs/day, and spend 2 additional hrs/day doing chores like showering, cooking, random errands, working out, etc, that only leaves 6 hours of free time.

With a two hour roundtrip daily commute, that cuts my free time by 1/3 and only leaves me with 4 hours to myself. Thus I place a high premium on those 4 hours.

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I think it's absurd that 1 hr+ commuting times are pretty normal (I live in NYC, and even 2-3 hour commutes are pretty common), and I think we should be striving to reduce this wasted time by increasing density in cities, making transportation more efficient, and increasing workplace flexibility (eg. embracing remote work).

Personal time on a train? We must have very different ideas about personal time. Or maybe trains.