I love the flexibility that comes with working from home. I love the fact that I can define my own hours. There are however some disadvantages of working from home. One of the most common problem people working from home face is ‘loneliness’. Here are my tips to overcome loneliness when working from home:
Keep In Touch: These days with ‘Twitter’, Instant Messaging and Skype you can be in touch with your friends online anytime. Having online friends with similar interests keeps you accountable and motivated. However try to not to spend too much time chatting. If a friend is in a mood for a long chat during business hours you have to be up front and tell them that you will have to get back to them later. For me just knowing that I have a network that I can rely on is good enough. Just that feeling that you are not alone is sometimes enough not to make you feel lonely.
Forums: Forums serve a dual purpose. They are an excellent means of getting the word about your business and they also allow you to keep in touch with other business friends. Again don’t spend too much time on forums. Don’t expect to find all your customers on the forums.
Podcasts: I am addicted to podcasts. I love listening to podcasts. There are heaps of podcasts on the internet and the number is growing every day. I prefer business oriented podcasts.
Take a walk: When you are working from home it’s quite easy to get chained to your desk. There are no water coolers to take your mind away from work. There are no colleagues across the desk to chat about the latest movie releases. So you need to come up with something that can take your mind away from work for some time. I normally walk to the park with my son mid morning. I love it because I come back all reinvigorated and my son is exhausted.
Move to different location: I sometimes get quite bored of my home office. When this happens I take my laptop with me to a different location. I am either off to the library or to the local caf