Before the Beeb I worked freelance – mostly from home – for about 5 years. It definitely takes a bit of effort to make it rewarding. Living inside your head for long stretches was maybe the hardest thing – I found social interaction with actual, real life human beings quite strange after solid hours of solo time. it felt like i was outside of myself looking in. (that’s possibly just me, early onset psychosis).

anyway, depending on how long-term the freelance thing is – and how good the cash flow – i found freelance offices are the best way to go. 180-200 quid a month for something that you don’t really need (a desk space, broadband etc) seemed a bit stupid at first but it was brilliant. it gives you that social interaction, often with interesting people doing similar-ish things (i was in a place with developers, designers, architects, photographers and other writers). i actually got quite a lot of work out of it too, so that covered the extra outlay. plus, you don’t have to go in every day if you don’t want, no one is your boss and there’s no office politics. also helps to create that space so you can actually stop working. when it’s all at home, everything seems to blur for me..

take it easy, paul

1) The Whanau find it hard to separate “dad/Ben at home” from “dad/Ben at home working”
2) I never “go home” so don’t discipline myself to “switch off”

On the other hand I also find it kind of hard to discipline myself to keep on target – there’s way too many distractions at home (a kitchen being the main one) to get in the way of workflow.

I’ve toyed with the idea of working from our granny flat and creating a pseudo “going to work/coming home” situation… at this stage I’m not working from home enough to justify it.. maybe one day!

cheers!

Must drum up a few friends who work in Canary Wharf (10 mins walk away)…. been meaning to for a while….

For me communication overhead at night is a problem – but hopefully with the TZ changes we can settle into some kind of routine.

I also find it’s important to get out of the house regularly – even if it’s just to a cafe for lunch/coffee. I try and go kitesurfing a couple of times a week (depending on wind) which really helps blow out the cobwebs. It’s easy to just getup, deal with the family, work, eat, work etc.. and then realize that I haven’t left the house in 2 days.

In terms of social interaction – the Auckland Arch chats have been great since we’ve been here (June) – but I do miss having an office full of people sometimes.

j.

and cheers Shaun

Biggest problem I have (actually there are a few) is that I have some pretty agressive targets to hit before I feel I’m in a position where I can relax even further. I want to be in a position where I can have an acceptable level of income where I can devote more time to what I really want to do which is writing. What this means is that for me working from home isn’t a 9-5 job it’s an “every waking moment” job where I can find myself being totally focussed on just the work and other things can potentially suffer.

I’ve been through a phase where after being healthier and fitter doing exercise etc, I then became lazier and started snacking more and more… this has taken some effort to knock on the head.

It’s a massively rewarding thing, being in a position to be able to work from home in terms of freedom in both professional and family terms but you have to find your own balance I think… and 18 months later, I’m still trying to get it right

Also, I’ve fallen into a kinda rhythm of working. I know that I don’t function until at least 10 – 11am usually. So even though I sit down at around 9am I tend to hit rss, twitter, etc etc. Once I have that out of the way I get started for a couple hours until 1pm, stop for lunch say 30 minutes or so then slog it out until around 5.30 – 7pm depending on how much I’ve accomplished. Now I’m not suggesting that this will work for anyone else, more that you need to find what works for you.