Freelancers Need to Leave Home Offices

There's a trick I use as a writer when I have to finish a piece, but my brain is just not ready to engage. I write something else instead. I've found that if I shift away from focusing on whatever piece I need to get done and just write something, anything, it gets the blood flowing. That's why I am writing this post. I have a huge feature due in a few hours that's only half written, but I can't seem to get into it right now.

Conveniently, the problem I am having getting going is tied directly to coworking. See, this article has kept me working at home for almost two weeks now because I've needed to do a ton of interviews and like a schmuck, I have a land line that I've never looked into transferring to the office. (I'm looking as soon as this piece is done, believe you me.) The effect on my mood and my health is very clear. I'm tired all the time and I feel on the verge of getting sick. Worse yet, now that the piece needs to be done, getting the words onto paper is like pulling teeth. Because there's nothing and no one else here to stimulate me, I'm being distracted by online environmental games, political gossip and of course e-mail.

I thought a clearer case for couldn't be made till Jacob sent me a link to a blog where the need to leave your home office was summed up perfectly:

When you're all alone in a home office day after day, you can spend whole afternoons staring into refrigerators or examining suspicious skin discolorations. Isolation breeds inertia, and some freelancers experience a sudden loss of creativity or productivity, as if their abilities were somehow tied to the social expectations of working with a team.

I may not be cleaning the refrigerator (takes a lot more to get me to do that), but inertia has set in. At least I'm writing now so I can go and try and get that draft done. Just 1,000 words to go.

With that, I'll leave you with a picture of my only company during these lonely two weeks. I miss you Office Nomads!