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Not a freelancer, but I've worked remotely... > It gets pretty dang lonely sometimes, particularly if you’re working remotely. I don’t care if you’re an introv
by RegBarclay 8y ago
Not a freelancer, but I've worked remotely...
> It gets pretty dang lonely sometimes, particularly if you’re working remotely. I don’t care if you’re an introvert or extrovert, it’ll affect you either way.
I'm an introvert. I was lonely. It does affect you.
> But for maximum productivity, your routine should involve getting dressed, brushing your teeth, and treating it like a “real job”.
I had to do this. If I wasn't wearing street shoes, I wasn't "at work."
- sz4kerto 8y agoOne of the best thing in working remotely is that I don't have to wear shoes. I could work very productively without these routines; the problem was that I could not switch off.
- cm2012 8y agoI think it helps to be married. I can honestly say I'm never lonely as a freelancer (2 years now, I almost never see clients).
- loopfor 8y agoI second this. I've been freelancing for about 2 years as well and I don't feel lonely because I'm married.
- andy_adams 8y agoFWIW, I've been married the whole time I've been a freelancer, and the loneliness didn't settle in until year 5 or so. Your spouse will probably not want to talk shop all the time, and those types of conversations (tech, business, etc) were what I missed the most. But maybe I'm just excessively sensitive!
- Cymen 8y agoI've found tech meetups scratch that itch a little bit but I'm 2 years into remote (with a wife and 2 kids) so maybe more is coming... Just curious if you tried that and if it worked or not for you?
- andy_adams 8y agoI've only started going to tech meetups recently, as an attempt to socialize. It's definitely helped! I basically avoided it for the first 6 years, so I'd recommend it very much.
- ido 8y agoWhen I was freelancing full time I would go to a share office 3 days per week.
- spirodonfl 8y agoAdd a baby to the mix. Suddenly you've got more human interaction than you can imagine in a given day.
- RegBarclay 8y agoMy wife works too, but not at home, so... It was cool during school breaks to have my older kids at home. Cool during lunch. Not so cool when I had to break up disagreements. It didn't get really bad for me until I'd been at home 5 or 6 years.
- koffiezet 8y agoI get what you mean... I'm a freelance and work mostly on location. Partially because getting people together and convincing/guiding technical people is a large aspect of my job - which is virtually impossible to do remotely. I'm also actually pretty introvert, and could lock myself up for days or weeks without seeing anyone - but that's on my terms. When it's not and there's no clear light at the end of the tunnel, that simply wouldn't work for me. The niche I found currently offers a nice balance - but I have to push myself for the social interactions that are required for the thing I do.