Happiness and the Work-Sleep-Shop Triangle
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, proposes that you should minimize your work commute (and the distance from your house to your favorite market) for maximum happiness:
Putnam likes to imagine that there is a triangle, its points comprising where you sleep, where you work, and where you shop. In a canonical English village, or in a university town, the sides of that triangle are very short: a five-minute walk from one point to the next. In many American cities, you can spend an hour or two travelling each side. “You live in Pasadena, work in North Hollywood, shop in the Valley,” Putnam said. “Where is your community?” The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul.
The home-based web worker eliminates one side of the work-sleep-shop triangle by combining sleeping and working in one place. This is smart — studies show that longer commutes are associated with less happiness.
But take care before you collapse your triangle into a single point by working in your bedroom, ordering your groceries from Peapod, and ditching any footwear besides your slippers. Putnam included the caveat “as long as there is social interaction to be had.” Experienced soloists know that reaching out to other people throughout the day — via IM, on conference calls, through Twitter, or even by meeting face to face for coffee or lunch — lessens the isolation of home-based work.
Perhaps, though, you need to get out of the house for work. You could look into a coworking arrangement, where you’ll be working alongside other people. Just make sure it’s a short drive from your home.
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I never thought about that.
Ah, that’s interesting. My family’s getting involved in a co-housing project in our area where we’ll be a block from the stores we usually use and have a common house that we share with our neighbors (for shared activities and shared meals — when we choose to take ‘em that way). So, I’ll be able to leave my home office, interact with my immediate neighbors (some of whom are retired, others of whom, like me, work out of a home office), hit the store when I’m outta Kit Kat bars and come back to work socially refreshed.
Totally agree about that… I am living into such a triangle and cant complain about my happiness :) I have everything at 5 min drive with my car!
How about this: I live in an apartment building next to where I work (strangely, I got them both around the same time by coincidence) and there’s a store two blocks down.
The plus side: I can bum the wifi from my work connection.
The down side: I really can’t call in unless I’m unable to function at all.
All of that is so close, that there is definitely not any social interaction to be had while en route to any of those, except the times that I’ve been asked for money by random people while dashing through the alley to the grocery store (not a common thing around here) But I live in a mid-sized city, so it’s not a massive trek to go to a friends house.
that’s why i love living close to my work and biking the distance. at the end of the day, i can skim by the lines of traffic and be home before many of them have gone a block. they’ve still got an hour before they’ve made it to the suburbs, and i’ve already reached my apartment, cracked a beer, and sitting in the sun on my patio.
I’m been thinking about this a lot, I am moving shortly to be with my girlfriend, where I don’t really know anybody. My current employer has offered me the ability to stay working full time telecommuting, but do I really want to be in a position where I’m sitting alone in a new house in a city where I don’t know anybody?