Working for yourself sometimes can feel a little isolating… but it truly doesn’t need to be. We’ve pulled together our tips for staying connected and avoiding loneliness while working solo!
1. Podcasts on Full Blast!
Yeah yeah, hardly a revolutionary idea right?! Podcasts? They may not be a new thing in your life, I mean if you’re like me you’ve already got 100+ podcast episodes ready to go on your phone but never find time to listen to them!
But trust me – a good podcast series can work wonders for fending off the loneliness. They’re like vitamins, they help with SOOO many things; you can learn something new, get inspired, be entertained, totally escape for a while and hey, you can even solve murders!!
So while you’re stuck at home, with no colleagues or workmates to speak of, turn the speaker up and press play on your favourite podcast!
Some of my faves are Love What You Do, The Guilty Feminist, How I Built This, The Slice and Hashtag Authentic!!
2. Start a Slack Group
If you’ve literally EVER worked in an office you’re probably already familiar with SLACK – the online communication platform where it all happens. And I mean ALL – we’re talking multiple conversation threads dedicated to different projects, discussions, shared docs, links, deadlines, and most importantly of all – the LOLs channel. Basically, the conversation thread created purely for office lols, so you and your colleagues can share memes, gifs, reels and jokes to get you through the day.
The beauty of Slack is it works using the wonderfulness of the internet – meaning you can STILL access it from home! WOAH! Am I right?! 😉 But seriously, keep the Slack going if you’re working with a team and if you’re a solopreneur or freelancer working for yourself, then create your own Slack group!
2. Make a digi mate date
Who else is missing the classic “After work drinks tonight babe?” texts that seem to slide into the WhatsApp thread around 4pm every Thursday? Or the total abandonment of your pre-prepared lunch in the office fridge because you decided to meet your friend for a street-food and a catch-up instead? The social stuff that happens around a job, outside of the actual working is often one of the best bits of the day. So even if you’re working for yourself and don’t have colleagues to eat lunch with, or you’re so locked-down that the yoga studio with your bestie after work is not an option, then enter the Digital Mate Dates.
Set-up a regular mid-week mate-date with a friend who is also working from home right now, and actually mark it in both your calendars, not flaking out. It doesn’t even need to be in real life, if the #pandemicvibes got you stuck indoors, get your lunch ready, hop onto Zoom and have a lunch date – just imagine you’re in down at Franco Manco squeezing in a quick pizza lunch before heading back to the office! It’s the perfect pick-me-up in the middle of your #WFH week!
You can do the same with yoga or even watching a movie! But the key thing is to book it in, and stick to it! It’ll become part of your routine, (in a good way!). Seriously when we get lonely, it’s actually easier than it should be to drop into a bit of a social rut – so we have to be actionable to make sure we nurture those friendships, even remotely!
4. Build or Join Communities
Okay so don’t immediately picture some retirement home gated community. Come on, we’re not there yet! I’m talking online communities. These can be an absolute LIFESAVER for solopreneurs, freelancers and anyone working from home or for themselves.
If you feel like you’d benefit from a support network you could dip in and out of to ask advice, and offer insight, and stay accountable, then you need to find your tribe – as they say! It is amazing how many like-minded women you can connect with, from all corners of the world without having to even leave the house!! There are multiple ways to do this, such as…
Facebook groups – literally for any topic you could be into – from female entrepreneurial groups to veganism, to photography, to crafting etc. This is ours you’d be welcome to join!
Paid memberships – such as Marguerite or The Coven – full of not just support but live events and learning too!
Mighty Networks – if you were a member of a sports club or local club, ask if they’ve set-up an online version anywhere or offer to help them do it, if not! MN provides an awesome way to turn a real-life community into an online space to keep people connected.
5. Change your location
Loneliness, anxiety and feeling disconnected while working remotely can also be related to your environment and location.
If you’re working pretty consistently in the same room or space every day, this can be a great thing – in terms of routine, but it also can for some people feel a little limiting or lonely.
So even if you have a killer home office set-up, or maybe you’re staying in a hostel with a cowork space attached, sometimes one of the best things you can do to connect with us is to shake things up and change up your environment / location. Even on a small scale.
We are creatures of habit and we get comfy in one routine, one place, one circle. Taking a step out to go and explore the neighbourhood to find a different cowork space to try, or a new little cafe to work from, can really open us up to meeting new people and making new connections!
PIN IT FOR LATER! 👇🏼
