Things You'll Need:
- Creativity
- Flexibility
-
Step 1
With motivation like this, you'll want to work in every coffee shop in your city!Don’t work from home
But wait – wasn’t the point of working from home to, well, work from home? Working from home doesn’t mean that you have to be chained to a desk in your home, as long as your requirements for work are minimal. If you have a laptop, you can take your work to one of a plethora of coffee shops, where Internet access is more common than not, caffeine flows, and everyone from other self-bossers, students and work-from-homers will be working, too.
If a coffee shop isn’t to your liking, try your local library, who often has rooms that can be reserved for free and often provide free Internet access. If you need something more professional or structure, just look around – there are tons of businesses out there that would love to lease a desk to someone who just needs to come into an office-like environment a couple of times a week. Business incubators are also a great place to find office space and some FedEx/Kinko’s also have desks that people can come and work at. There are several solutions and no one in particular is right, so get creative and ask around. You'll be surprised at who you know that will have a solution to meet your needs. -
Step 2
Plan regular excursions with family and friends to break up your work week.Make dates for yourself
Because you won’t be getting your social interaction from going to the office anymore, it will be especially important to schedule regular dates for yourself to get out of your dwelling. I found that I needed to break up my day even more than I thought I would, as I found myself more focused on the tasks at hand because I had no at-home interruptions. The bonus was it got me out, my sanity was kept in check, and I got extra exercise. But even that wasn't enough. Planning regular dates for yourself to get out of your environment, participate in an activity that you love, and keep in touch with your friends and co-workers. The frequency will depend on the level of extroversion that you're at, but a good rule of thumb is to make plans to get out of your house, for at least a few hours, four nights out of the seven. Try it for three weeks and then reassess to determine whether your date nights with yourself need to increase or decrease. -
Step 3
Indulge your hobbies and passions, and stay social at the same time.Sign up for a class
Wasn’t one of the reasons you wanted to work from home so you would have more free time to do those things that you love? Well, get out there and do them! Taking a class can be a perfect way to indulge a love and passion and will expose you to an entirely new group of people outside your already existing social circle. You’ll learn a new skill and make new friends at the same time, and the added motivation will keep you focused when you are working at home and will give you something to look forward to. -
Step 4
Find a partner
Extroverts tend to work with another warm body in the room. If this works for you, make sure that you find a like-minded individual who works in a similar fashion to you. Set a timer for a pre-determined amount of time when socialization is not allowed and you both get to work on your projects. When the timer goes off, get up, stretch, and take a 10 minute break together. After your 10 minutes are up, it's back to work.
The timer helps ensure that mindless chatter is kept to a minimum and that you both can be productive. At the same time, you don't want to be with someone who is going to refuse to socialize, but you don't want to be with someone who is going to keep you from working, either. -
Step 5
Find a partner
Extroverts tend to work with another warm body in the room. If this works for you, make sure that you find a like-minded individual who works in a similar fashion to you. Set a timer for a pre-determined amount of time when socialization is not allowed and you both get to work on your projects. When the timer goes off, get up, stretch, and take a 10 minute break together. After your 10 minutes are up, it's back to work.
The timer helps ensure that mindless chatter is kept to a minimum and that you both can be productive. At the same time, you don't want to be with someone who is going to refuse to socialize, but you don't want to be with someone who is going to keep you from working, either. -
Step 6
Turn your home office into your dream office
Make your adjustment to your new office as easy as possible by creating your dream office space at home. Dress up your desk with colorful flowers and lush green plants, keep your favorite pair of slippers handy, and invest in that espresso maker. In short, as an extrovert you’re going to want to actually be in your office if you make it a space with all the creature comforts that you wanted and couldn’t get in your corporate office environment. Decorate it with things that make you happy and inspire you. Use color to create a division of space that will make sure that you have your own little slice of heaven in whatever room you set up shop in.
