The rush to give employees access to all the tools they’d need to work from home was a bit, well, sudden for many employers. But after everyone settled in, what quickly became apparent to many office-based teams is that employees could be productive and focused when not in the office—in many cases, even more so. Employers everywhere began to understand that remote work really works.

Whether you’re on the hunt for a remote job or are already working virtually, check out this list of the advantages of working from home, along with some of the top companies that hire for remote jobs.

10 Benefits of Working From Home

As we’ve long known, remote work has a host of advantages for workers. We’re listing out the best of the best benefits of working from home—some you may already be aware of, and some that may open your eyes even more to remote work’s impact on employers, employees, the economy, and the planet.

1. Better Work-Life Balance

Many remote jobs also come with flexible schedules, which means that workers can start and end their day as they choose, as long as their work is complete and leads to strong outcomes. This control over your work schedule can be invaluable when it comes to attending to the needs of your personal life.

Whether it’s dropping kids off at school, running some errands, attending an online fitness class in the morning, or being home for a contractor, these tasks (and more!) are all easier to balance when you work from home.

2. Less Commute Stress

The average one-way commuting time in the U.S. is 27.1 minutes—that’s nearly an hour each day spent getting to and from work, and it really adds up. According to the Auto Insurance Center, commuters spend about 100 hours commuting and 41 hours stuck in traffic each year. Some “extreme” commuters face much longer commute times of 90 minutes or more each way.

But wasting time commuting is just one of the downsides of getting to and from work. More than 30 minutes of daily one-way commuting is associated with increased levels of stress and anxiety, and research shows that commuting 10 miles to work each day is associated with health issues like:

• Higher cholesterol
• Elevated blood sugar
• Increased risk of depression

Ditching the commute helps you support your mental and physical health.

The time savings can allow you to focus on priorities outside of work, like getting extra sleep in the morning, spending more time with family, getting in a workout, or eating a healthy breakfast.

3. Location Independence

One of the considerable benefits of working from home is having access to a broader range of job opportunities that aren’t limited by geographic location. This can be especially helpful for job seekers living in rural communities and small towns where there may not be many available local positions. Having no set job location means that, pre-pandemic, fully remote workers could also travel and live as digital nomads while having a meaningful career.

Though a full nomad lifestyle is currently on hold, as borders begin to open up, it’s still a definite perk. People who have to move frequently, such as military spouses, can also benefit from having a remote job that can be done from anywhere, without having to start over at the bottom of a new company with each move.

In addition, remote work is a great way to avoid high-rent and high-mortgage areas, especially for positions (like tech) that used to require living in a city with a high cost of living. With remote work, you no longer have to live near a major metropolitan area to have a career you love.