Working From Home – 5 Tips To Avoid That Dreaded Loneliness

Recently Mary wrote a post on FSw about her loneliness as a freelance writer and how badly she missed human company.

Although Mary ended the post on a positive note, talking about the benefits of working from home, this is a topic which probably concerns everyone out there who is working from home.

Man is a social animal. Working from home, it’s never easy to just stay glued to your computer for the entire day without talking to or hanging out with anyone outside your family. Being a full time blogger and freelancer, who took the plunge after quitting a nice job with the world’s largest computer firm, I too sometimes tend to miss the corporate culture and the social circle and interaction.

So how to avoid this loneliness? Two solutions:

1. Go back to your full time job
2. Try some of the following tips and see if they work for you (they have worked for me)

1: Skype​

Skype could be your best friend when it comes to avoiding that solitude. It always feel nice to hear a human voice rather than just chatting on IM. Everyday, a 15-20 mins conversation with your buddy could charge you up and help you work better.

2: Touch Base With Friends Often​

You should not ignore those friends who are not a part of your virtual world. Instead you should call them often and also try and meet them whenever possible. This will ensure that you stay in touch with them and have a life outside your home office too.

3: Network With Other Freelancers In Your City​

One of the things which differentiates a full time job from a work-at-home job is the work environment. In a full time job, you interact with your colleagues everyday about professional and personal things, verbally and face-to-face. If you miss such interactions in your daily life after taking the plunge to full-time freelancing, then its always good to network with other people in your city, who are also working from home. You can also meet them and have a similar interaction with them.

4: Practice Your Hobby​

Everyone of us has a hobby and most of us have almost forgotten it due to lack of time. Now is the time to rediscover it and practice it everyday. Like our very own Jon, who is a rockstar by night and also a guitar teacher. He is also the lead guitarist in a heavy alternative band. I am sure this started as a hobby for him and now, apart from working from home as a web designer and blogger, he enjoys being a rockstar too !

5: Get A Part-Time Job​

If you are really missing your full time job and the corresponding work environment, then its better to hunt for a part time job and invest 4-5 hours there everyday. Then after some time you can always assess if you are going along well with your freelancing and the part-time job or its time to quit the work-at-home thing or really go full-time.

I’d love to get suggestions from you on this topic. What do you do when you feel stressed and/or lonely, or you simply miss the human interaction?