The old commute may leave a gap that was also private thinking time.

Some of the most useful time in a day is time that was not designed for anything. A commute is dead time on paper and, in practice, often the only stretch where nobody wants anything from you: a buffer between two versions of yourself where thoughts finish themselves. Remove it and the two halves of the day run straight into each other, which is why a shorter journey can leave you feeling oddly less rested.

If a transition has disappeared from your day, build a small deliberate one. A walk around the block before you go in does more than its length suggests.