Working from home let’s face it more people are given this option within their employment, or why more people are starting up their own businesses. This idea sounds awesome right?!
· No traveling to and from work, means no dealing with traffic jams or public transport.
· No delays and arriving to work late.
· Can wake up and sit and work in your PJ’s if you fancy it!
· If you have children being able to pop out and do the school runs.
· Less spending on work clothes.
· Flexible working.
All of the above sounds excellent, less things to stress over so a better work life balance. But don’t be fooled as much as it can be a real positive move to work from home, it also comes with some not so positives. Don’t they say ‘Good always comes with bad’, myself falling into this category as I work fully remote and at home. I have to keep reminding myself on things to combat feeling lonely during my day, and feel it’s a great subject to share with you all. Hence why this blog post was created, here I have gone through some of the most important steps to squash the feelings of loneliness.
Most places now have co-working places, where you can rent a desk in an office surrounded by others. They provide you with the essentials desk, phone, WIFI and refreshments, these are great for the community feel. They normally come with a weekly fee, but a great way to stamp on the loneliness. Also, your local library might be a great place to work, I know the local one to myself allows people to work from there.
I love to put a good podcast on while I’m working, something inspiring and productive. No one likes to work in complete silence, I find my mind starts to wonder in total silence and not on the task in front of me. Even though it’s not real people, it provides a nice background that is humanizing.
When you have a break for lunch, go and meet up with a friend and have lunch out. This is great as it gets you out the house, but it gives you the real person contact in your down time. Bonus is you have a lovely lunch and a good catch up, I always try to eat healthy for my own wellbeing.
There is nothing more I love then on a lovely sunny day, taking my laptop outside and working. Just hearing the natural sounds of the nature can have such a calming effect, I also find the calmer I am the more productive I am. I also find my stress levels are considerably lower, and feel less lonely being outside.
As above I have spoken about working outside, but when its winter and autumn you need your comforts to work. You may work from your dining room table or have your own corner with a desk set up, always try to make where you’re working personal. Have meaningful photos by you, work where you have light, have things personal to you and what you enjoy. Research I have done for my blog post has even stated some people love working with their pets near them. Which makes sense as I type this now, I have my two dogs at my feet. I have read that pets can reduce stress levels and ease the feelings of loneliness, specially dogs.
These are some great ways to combat the loneliness and feeling isolated working from home, I am sure there are lots more. Always remember you can connect with other people working from home, may it be a networking group or a group on social media. When you can connect with people in the same situation in everyday working life, its great how you can pull each other through and not feel so lonely and isolated. Even if you all meet up for your lunch breaks, it can feel like you’re working in an office with real people.
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