Working from home can be great, but if you are a fun loving people person, it can be a bit of nightmare, so how do you get over the isolation, being stuck in your home office day after day without seeing another person? Andréa Coutu writing in the Consultant Journal provides some tips to stop you from becoming insane.

Nine tips for dealing with home office isolation

1. Go for a walk. Get out every day.

2. Buy a light book. Reset your routines and perhaps your mood.

3. Create some routines. Buy a latte every morning at the nearest coffee shop. Go out for lunch. Take a lunchtime yoga class. Go for a jog. Incorporate some of the structure you’d have in an office setting.

4. Rent cubicle space. I’ve seen cubicle rentals on Craigslist for $10 an hour.

5. Share an office. I know a group of medical professionals who rent out the receptionist’s desk because they have no use for it.

6. Work from the library. Take your laptop and grab a desk.

7. Work from a coffee shop — lattes, WiFi and lots of small business owners.

8. Share another home office. I know a couple of graphic designers who share a home office. It helps them feel like they’re in a regular office environment.

9. Invent work that keeps you out of the home. I teach university-level courses. I have friends who teach at community centers. Come up with ways to get out of your home office and get paid for it.

Personally I like the isolation, sitting in my office working away, nobody looking over my shoulder. Having said that I can see the importance for some people to get out and about, after all social interaction is a key factor. So it has to be a mix of both, but the work must be done, because there are bills to be paid etc.

Making the choice to work from home, is not as simple as many people think, there are all these points to remember before embarking on a venture that means you work from home.

Source  [Consultant Journal]