At times, it seems like it would be cool to live really close to work.  There'd be no commute, no traffic, less wear on my car, less money on gas, a greater likelihood of riding a bike to work, etc.  I could go home for lunch, be home when the Fedex guy comes, be home when the cable guy comes.  I wouldn't need to worry about forgetting anything at home or leaving something on my desk at work. 

But I think I reconsidered based on what I saw last night.  I was playing basketball at my church and left at around 9:45pm.  On my way out, I saw the church's youth pastor running around and getting some things done after hours.  He happens to live about 200 feet from the church.  That's when it occurred to me:  If you live that close to work, there's no difference between work time and home time.  It all kind of runs together.  You go back to your office after everybody leaves to get a little work done.  You show up on Saturday or Sunday for a few hours here and there just to work without any distractions.  You forget something on your desk, so you go pick it up and get caught up helping somebody fix their computer. 

That sucks.  The way my life works right now, there's work time, and there's home time.  They're very distinct.  There's no crossover.  I've never brought work home, and I never intend to.  I spend 8-10 hours of my day at work.  After sleep, it's the activity that takes up the greatest percentage of my time.  If things don't get done during that time, oh well.  If I forget something at home, I can live without it.  If I leave something at my desk, it can wait until tomorrow.  Work just isn't important enough to invade my personal life. 

I just read this Business Week article (via Kottke) about how Best Buy's new corporate philosophy is to "demolish [the] decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity ... [and] to judge performance on output instead of hours."  This sounds like a great idea at first, especially for me, because I always feel like I could complete a 9-hour-day's work in about 1 hour.  The other 8 hours consist of corporate junk mail, meetings, performance reviews, training, and blankly staring into nothingness.  If my job was geared towards performance instead of time, I'd have a lot more time to myself.  The article goes on to talk about several high-level employees who do their work while they're at home and/or spending their time away from the office.  These people get their work done, even if it's while hunting or going to concerts. 

But I see a striking similar to the youth pastor:  With a performance-instead-of-time system, you're never not working.  You're never off the clock.  Instead of going to the office from 8-5, you're working "whenever", which to me means "all the time".  There's no difference between work and home, especially if you often work from home.  This sounds cool on the surface, but underneath, it means more work and less home time.  And that sucks.