When I have glasses made I tell the person setting them up to lower where the progressive area starts 1 mm. They tend to argue but I them it's for shooting with a scope and I have had glasses made this way for years.
That will work for some lens designs, won't work for others. The tighter you pack the add/reading area towards the bottom, the narrower the "waist" of the hourglass is going to be and the soft-focus moves in.
There are progressive lens designs specifically to maximize your distance vision. None of the "progressive" portion of the lens will begin until you get below the 180 line (half-way). You'll get a huge distance zone, the compromise is a short and narrow corridor of intermediate vision so your "sweet-spot" of clear vision @ computer/dashboard vision is narrow and then the close in/reading is wide again.
