Working Alone
Once a week, I meet a telecommuting friend at Panera or in my home and we work together for about four hours. We’ve been friends for almost 20 years and we’ve shared many jobs during that time, so we know how each other likes to work and we manage to get in a lot of chatting during that four hours. But it makes me feel a little closer to society after we meet and a little more like I’ve got coworkers than I might if I was home alone all the time.
So try to reach out to any telecommuters you know and see if you can set up a weekly or monthly work meeting. If you don’t know any, you could post a notice on the bulletin board of your favorite Wifi spot and see if any locals want to meet up. Just be sure you don’t take the person home or give them too much information if you don’t know them. Duh.
My work group saved my productivity this summer. When I moved to start my new job (I’m a professor, not a free lances, but several days a week and all summer, the lifestyle is the same), the stress plunged me into writers block the likes of which I’ve never seen! I went a year without substantial productivity. Setting up a work group. having someone to write with, accountability, dedicated time and space, someone to talk about time management and publishing strategies with….I owe them all of my productivity, which may mean my career life, to them!