Combating Loneliness While Working from Home

December 22, 2007 | No Comments

There are many advantages of working from home. You are your own boss and dictate what you can do when. You can probably make more money and spend more time with your family and children especially if you plan and manage your time efficiently. But with all these advantages comes the bane of loneliness. If you are a self-starter and your work involved using some skills while sitting in front of your computer, it probably means that the only interaction that you have with other people while at work is through your computer.

This kind of interaction is pretty impersonal and leaves you feeling bored and lonely. There will probably be times when you feel excited about getting a project that you had bid for but have no one to share the excitement with. Unlike office where deals are joint team efforts and can be celebrated by the whole team, working from home by yourself means that you do may not have company when you are feeling excited or low.

Your movement will also be probably limited to your kitchen, bedroom, workplace and the living room. And being in the same place for so long can actually depress you at times. Even when you take a break and sit down to watch some television, you realize that nothing that interests you is on television for you to relax with.

But there are many options to fight loneliness and ensure that you have people around you and make plenty of friends. Evaluate the various options listed below.

Schedule your day - It may sound the most illogical thing to do especially since you are combating boredom and loneliness, but setting a schedule can actually ensure that you have time for yourself when you need it. And this will then mean that you will have free time for some part of the day that you can choose to spend with other people and do things that you like. Even though you are not working in an office, you can ensure that you work from 8am to 5pm or 5am to 3pm depending on the timings that suit you and leave the rest of the day for other activities. You don’t have to think that you are then getting back to the grind of office hours because you know that you have the flexibility and if you can be regulated enough to chose the option to break the schedule when you really have to it will work well.

Go out for a while - When the dreariness of loneliness gets to you while at work, take a walk with your kids or your spouse or the dog. Just getting out of the house for a while can make things better because while outside you are likely to bump into some people whom you know and have a small chat. You could also befriend a neighbor and decide to go together on an evening walk everyday. This will give you the break that you need during work hours if not after.

Join a club - If you work from home, exercise must form an integral rotuine because working from home probably means giving into food urges and also a sedentary lifestyle. Yes, you can also exercise at home on a treadmill or a home gym and joining a health club does have an annual fee attached to it, but the socializing benefits that come along with it is worth every penny invested.

Choose a hobby that takes you out - If you are one of those who have converted your hobby into your means of livelihood, try and find one more that will give you socializing opportunities.

Go to the theatre and the movies - While most people who are working full time may prefer to rent a DVD and watch the latest flick from home, don’t give into this option. Go out and watch a movie or a play in a theatre. Sitting in the rows and watching a performance can actually tie the entire audience in some kind of invisible string. If your family does not appreciate your need to do this, go out on your own and enjoy.

Invest in a laptop - Working from home does not need that you have to be wedded to your workstation or workplace. You should invest in a laptop so that you can chose to sit in the park or sip coffee at a café or relax on your porch while you work. It can actually activate your creative juices at times and bring out your best piece of work.

Take up a part time job - Avoiding the rat race may well have been your intentions when you gave up work but if you are feeling that loneliness is taking away your creativity, productivity and efficiency, then take up a part time job that will ensure that you are out of your house for a few hours in a day for a few days in a week. Doing this will ensure that a routine is built into the day and this will also allow you to interact with people who are doing other things. Don’t fret about what you will do. You can always find something if you start looking. Taking tuitions for kids is one option and teaching in a university is another. You could actually teach what you do for a living and ensure that you are in touch with the latest.

The idea, as you may have well figured out by now, is to get out and interact with people and since that does not seem to happen automatically as it does with people who work fulltime, you need to make some extra efforts to do the same.

Written by Vishal P. Rao of Work at Home Forum.

Posted in Working from Home