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The isolation of freelancing
I'm in a bit of a slow period, so I have fewer things to distract me right now, but one of the things that is proving difficult for me being freelance and working from home is the loneliness and isolation. I'd say more the latter. I just feel cut off from the world and being in my apartment for 22 hours a day, with maybe an hour here or there to go shopping or go to the gym or something, or take a bike ride, it takes its toll after awhile. Sometimes I start to feel like this place is a prison that I get out for an hour a day to go workout, then back to the prison cell. I'm even starting to have thoughts of maybe joining the 9-5 world again. I don't know.
What is your take on this matter? Dealing with that isolation? I've been doing this about a year and a half now and have had little bouts of it that quickly went away, but now feel like it's effecting my overall mood. It's making me feel like I need to jump in a plane and just go backpack some far away country, get in the car and drive a long away from here, just get away, to anywhere. I think I'm going to grab my flash books and just go to the beach right now to study, just the get away from looking at 4 walls.
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Perhaps the best way to break this trend is to schedule professional time as you would schedule any other professional meeting. Go to lectures, visit galleries, reconnect with old classmates and co-workers, and hit up those networking events! Even if you don't make any new business contacts, the conversation and time away from your desk will do some good. Check out Likemind (http://www.likemind.us) and meetup.com for a place to start.
Lately, I have found Twitter to be an immensely social online pursuit. Feedback comes quicker and more directly, and meetups and networking events scheduled on Twitter are common pretty much everywhere. Try searching for your city and just add random people, you can always remove them. If you can, try to build an IM list for people in your trade, even if they are not local. Instant chatting can be a welcome escape during the day, and can be a great tool for gathering opinions quickly.
This is so true and happens to many ppl as Scott have said.
I have had exactly the same isolation feeling many times. It´s true it happens to ppl in many fields, but I think we freelancers who work at home in front of a computer are specially more frequent to face this kind of situations.
I remember a few months ago I left home and I was literally impressed of seeing so many people in the streets! in that moment I realized something was going wrong with me and I needed to see more people...hehehe, weird huh?
In my case this feeling goes away soon since I really enjoy being alone. But it´s true that when you pass many days totally alone it can be really hard. My wife has just come back from US, so I,m not alone now, but when she wasn´t here (for 30 days) loneliness was really killing me.
Making some networking/adding some folks to my IM (many of them members of FSw) has been a good relief for these feeling, but it is also important to get off home.
I try to go out with my wife and with friends. Many times they (friends) come to my place too and we have a good time. I also have a group of friends with different interests than mine with whom I go out regularly, specially looking for new and nice restaurants (we are food lovers).
I try to keep my social live fresh so I dont get so lonely. But yeah, it happens and I think it´s normal in some way. We just have to learn to deal with it.
Our freelancing work (designing/coding/writing, etc) are lonely jobs. We must avoid that feeling to overcome us.
- i usually take half or a whole day on friday and rotate between a trip to some of my favorite paper/design/fabric/other stores in the city, a trip to the book store where i spend hours flipping through pages and hanging out in the cafe, going to a lecture/event/reading or other things that i plan ahead for....
- i also try to get out of the house at least twice a day, may it be a walk with the dog, a trip to the grocery store or to the gym, anything like that. doesnt seem exciting but you start to look forward to catching up with the counter person at the gym or store.
- i take my laptop and work from other places whenever i can. usually a couple times a month now, might be less once i start working off my new machine.
-t
You already know the problem and you already know the solution. So what's the issue exactly here? You're lonely...and it can happen in both the high and low seasons. So stop being lonely..
I take walks, try to schedule social meet ups in the same location where i have a business meeting, call an old friend "out of the blue", or just go to the mall and window shop. I sometimes even just hop in my car and leave the city and go back to my village where its actually much more lonely but its good for an intellectual retreat.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/curtismchale
Attend local small business groups/events.
Join a class or sporting club, both exercise and social benefits.
I don't know if doing more things online would cater for loneliness from working alone online. Would definitely recommend more offline options.
This isn't good. Even though we all feel this way sometimes. If this feeling stays with you, I suggest trying to find alternative places to get work done. If your in a larger community, libraries are a great place to do freelance work because of free wi-fi. Consider taking a day or two and just changing the office situation. Freelancing in today's world is great because we aren't tied down to any office. Get out there and steal some wifi from your community :).
I just think that it is vital that we keep our home a haven and joy in our life. It should be a place of relaxation. When you fear going home because home as become work, then where are you going to go?