I commute from NYC to Washington, DC, every week. It's not so bad — and even my long Amtrak rides have surprising perks.

My commute from New York City to Washington, DC, requires long Amtrak rides each week, and this arrangement has helped my career.

Sienna Sullivan I live in New York City but work full-time in Washington, DC, in a hybrid role I enjoy.

My job requires me to be in the office twice a week, so I take Amtrak trains and stay with family.

I enjoy perks of living in NYC while growing my career in DC and doing freelance work on my commute.

It's 5:52 a.m. in Moynihan Train Hall .

I'm balancing a container of fruit and my water bottle in one hand while tightening the straps of a backpack that's weighed down by two laptops with the other.

It's the start of my twice-weekly commute between New York City and Washington, DC.

I'm five months into this supercommute, and I can practically traverse the Northeast Corridor in my sleep.

More importantly, I've learned how to turn eight hours on Amtrak trains into one of the most productive parts of my workweek.

This arrangement lets me refine my career in DC without leaving NYC I try to catch the high-speed train when I can so I can get some extra sleep.

Sienna Sullivan At 26, I'm still early in my career and figuring out which corner of my industry feels most like home.

I moved to New York four years ago to broadly pursue publishing and was working in lifestyle journalism when a welcome opportunity to pivot into academic publishing came along.

As someone whose soft science degree has been collecting dust in my childhood bedroom closet, I was excited by the chance to do something new, something that would satisfy the research-loving part of my brain.

The only catch, as you might have guessed, was that this career pivot seemed to involve a move to Washington, DC .