Being in business for yourself is extremely fulfilling, but there can be a few downsides to it. Especially if you run the business out of your own home, down in an office in the basement...away from sunlight.
You can get Cabin Fever!
I've noticed that since I took the business full time I occasionally will get Cabin Fever. The reason? Well, there can be days on end where I don't leave the house (seriously, I have no reason to. I can do everything I need to run the business right from my home office).
To show how little I actually travel now, my new-to-me truck that I bought in Jan of last year only has 9,000 more miles on it since I bought it. 3,000 of those miles were from driving it home from Virginia, so I've only put 6,000 miles on it in a whole year!
To combat the Cabin Fever, every now & then for the heck of it I'll come up with some excuse to drive to Walmart to get something. Mainly it's just to leave the house & actually walk around where there's other people (and to see that there still is that big bright ball in the sky).
It's funny, it's a side effect I guess I never thought of when I started the business, but it really does happen & I really can go a little stir-crazy if I don't get out once in a while.
In fact, Valerie get's out more than I do most of the time (she drives Emily to school, goes to aerobics, goes shopping, to the library, etc). I can be at home & not drive anywhere for weeks on end (it's amazing how long a tank of gas will last in my truck--major benefit!--It's well over a month if anyone's wondering).
I didn't realize how little I "get out" until I started tracking it one week. It was extremely little. Basically, church & a run to the corner store or Walmart or the post office every now & then. Yep. Pretty pathetic...
So, aside from all the great perks that come from working from home, my advice to anyone thinking of doing it is to be sure you schedule some time in there to get away from the house; your psyche will thank you for it!
-Graydon
5 comments:
and there is medicine if you don't get out.
It's funny that you wrote that because Taylor and I were just talking today about that exact thing. We were talking about how hard it would be to get out if you worked from home unless you were extremely socially motivated.
True....especially with young kids....and, I'm not that "socially motivated"...
Set a time and just go take your wife and family to lunch. It would do all of you a world of good to just get out of the house.
That's a good idea. We kind of did that the other day. I loaded up the kids in the truck (minus Laurie, she was out for a nap) and visited the new local Arby's & brought back lunch.
That Arby's sauce is still pretty good...
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