Working at home is great for being available for your kids/house/pets however it can isolate your from your peers in what I like to call the “real” world, there is no opportunity to go to lunch with peers, join in with office activities or meetings.
There are several things you can do to prevent isolation and continue to enjoy your home office. First of all create a routine, have casual Friday, go out to lunch, for coffee in the mornings. Take a walk at lunchtime, eat your lunch in a nearby park. If you have kids at home, take one day and have someone watch the kids while you go out to lunch or take an exercise class.
Join a group related to your profession, or that is involved in something you have an interest in, wildlife, environment, something that you would enjoy participating in.
Share an office with someone in your same industry, find cubicle space in your town so you can work a few hours out of the house a week, go to your local coffee shop with wifi. I meet with others in my town who worked at home at a local coffee shop and discussed issues we were having, offered support to each other and even answered each others phones for some time to concentrate on tasks, or go out.
Statistics show that people working at home work more hours and seem to feel that the extended amount of work hours is due to not being able to separate work and home in the same space. You can prevent this by defining your work time each day, making a list of specific work tasks to complete and making sure that a specific area in your home is considered your office and when you leave the office you close your mental door and “go home”.
Working at home isnt as easy as it seems and it takes discipline to make ti work. Good luck
