When it comes to most of my immediate peers, I’m the anomaly. The vast majority of my friends have more conventional jobs where they commute to an office and work among their co-workers. By contrast, I own and run my freelance writing business out of home and most of my days are spent alone.
A question that I get all the time is how I handle working alone. How do I manage to maintain my sanity in such an isolated environment? How do I overcome the lack of connection with colleagues and clients? How do I replace the casual contact that I would otherwise get through water cooler chatter and cubicle shenanigans?
Connecting with Colleagues
There’s something to be said about the independence and flexibility of working from home (or from a co-working space). However, it’s still important to make those real human connections with your clients and colleagues. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I attend Dot Com Pho. The casual atmosphere gives me that office banter without distracting me over the course of a typical work day.
While it is certainly true that I have never seen many of my clients in real life, I do make the effort to make a real connection with them in other ways. And the beauty of the Internet is that it is really easy to keep the communication channels open.
Social Media and Regular Contact
Social media is huge. You may have noticed that I am quite active on networks like Twitter and Facebook. These channels allow me to maintain that regular (and casual) contact with colleagues and clients, as we are able to share both work and non-work related events with one another. When combined with instant messengers and regular e-mails, I’m more connected than you think.
Does this replace face-to-face conversations? Probably not, but I never really feel all that alone when I am sitting at my computer in the home office. A friend or colleague is only an IM or tweet away.
The Human Factor
The phenomenon of urban cabin fever is very real and it is very much something that you’ll need to address if you work primarily alone and from home. Human beings are social beings and even the most introverted of people need some human contact in order to maintain their humanity (and sanity).
Again, that’s one of the reasons why I attend Dot Com Pho on a regular basis. It is also one of the reasons why I attend the various tech conferences that I do; I am able to catch up with friends who I may not otherwise see in real life. If it were not for these kinds of trade shows and conventions, I may not have seen people like Bob Buskirk and Danielle Nagami in the flesh.
Reduction of Distractions
To some, working alone at home sounds like prison. To some, the relative sense of isolation would be positively unbearable. If that’s the case, a freelance home-based business may not be the most appropriate choice. That said, having embarked down this road for a number of years, I’m not sure how I would be in a more conventional office environment.
The home office, as it stands, helps to reduce the number and intensity of distractions, making me better able to focus on the tasks at hand. This will depend on your particular circumstances and your chosen home office location, but it works for me. The 10-second commute certainly helps too.
All of those are great ways to stave off cabin fever. I would believe that some of the connections you made through Social Media are now clients and are one’s that you have actually gotten to see in person too. The social media connection is also good for the type of work you do with your travel. You can get feedback and set up meetup’s with social media friends at the events you plan to go to.
Now, I do feel that it is very important that you do have that home office. Especially now being married and the distraction that it can be. Also, at some point you are going to start a family and that is going to affect your distractions and the time you have to either connect with clients in person or socially via the internet.
For me personally, the human connections are better left to the evenings or weekends when we are all in a relaxed mood. At the workplace, it seems everyone is crabby or stressed out and that sort of environment used to bring me down too. Working at home spares me from all that while allowing me to listen to music, take a TV break or whatever I wish, while getting my work done at the same time. But like you said, social media, chat (both text and voice) help tremendously too.
-Jean
facebook helps a lot in talking and relaxing with friends with some light gossip and fun at times