Super Secret Podcast Episode 2: Home Alone

Hey friends!

Today’s Episode is about Being Home Alone. And how maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be?

Transcript:

Hello Friends and welcome to Chaos Freelancer the Super Secret podcast episode number 2. This isn't actually the episode I planed to do. I am recording this at 2:44 on September 20th and my guess is I'm going to end this recording, Go pick up my children, lightly edit my mouth sounds out, upload it and send it out because I had a much different week that I thought I was going to.

I had planned on an episode about something that I call false urgency and I do want to talk about that, but this week was really weird.

And so I thought I would talk about it out loud and maybe it will get you thinking the way it got me thinking. So Mr. Chaos Freelancer has been gone this whole week. He had told me his his office was doing like a big like planning session conference. And even though they are like I would say 98% remote, they wanted to all get together while a colleague was in town. And like do like a big team meeting.

And it was going to last all week long and they had activities planned and all this other stuff. And I approached this as  “Ohh, thank God. I'm so excited. Like I went into this week like I'm going to be alone. It is going to be like March 7th 2020 all over again. I've been waiting for you to go back into the four years. The kids are back in school. Like I'm finally going to get like my whole office from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM like back:

I had plans to like record videos and like record some podcast episodes and like do a ton of writing - like I was planning on inordinate amount of writing - but that's not, that's not what happened. So what I discovered was I have become deeply accustomed to having Mr. Chaos Freelancer at home.

This was something that I did not think I had grown accustomed to, so let's flash back a little bit. So in March of 2020, right, I am finally at a point and I had been at a point for about 6 months. Both my children were in school all day long which was awesome. Mr. Chaos, Freelancer had a job. So has a job. It's the same job, but he had a job that was going into the office.

So from about 7 AM 7:30 AM to about 3:30 PM, I was all by myself. Every day left to my own devices. I had my own patterns I'd like come home. I'd do some housework. Then I do work, work. Then I do calls. Then I do some more work then I'd like go do my workout and then I would pick the kids up and then I would stop being alone.

And then in March 2020, specifically March 13th, 2020, that all changed. Like many of you, it was sometime around mid March and in our case I know because my kids have the day off of school and my husband. He used to go to work really early in the morning and he, like, shook me awake. And he's like, hey, there is a COVID case at my office, so they're closing the building. I'm not going into work for like 2 weeks and then I was like, OK, and then we we pretty much expected they would close the schools. Then later on that day, they did, for a couple of weeks. That’s what we thought.

So I can mark the day, March 13th, 2020 was the day that I stopped working by myself and started working with my family in the office. Now for about a year and half, we worked both of us together with the children home and then the kids went back in school, but Mr. Chaos Freelancer, his office stayed remote and they have continued to stay remote and only for things like this.  

And the thing that struck me was I walked into this week being like it's going to be exactly how I like it and how I'm used to. I'm going to be by myself because in my brain, March 2020 seems like a hot minute ago, even though it was exactly long enough for me to get used to something.

And what I discovered was I have gotten used to having someone else with me in my day and that when left to my own devices, like when I'm alone. I'm so not used to being alone alone, that it feels like a vacation. So bwhen Mr. Chaos Freelancer was out and I was left to my own devices, what happened was I did not want to do very much and I had to, like push myself to tell myself like this is a regular work week. You're not taking the day off like you're not on vacation. This is not special like this is your time to get lots of stuff done and consequently I didn't because I thought it was.

Like it's still March 2020 instead of September 2024, and I had gotten used to working in, in, in an environment with another person. And the thing that I find really interesting, I have never as a freelancer or as someone who works for themselves. I have never given too much thought to the environment that I work in. I have a cute setup in my living room. I don't have an office because we only have 3 bedrooms. I had an extra child so my child's got my office.

But for a very long time, probably about 10 years, I have not given much thought to the environment that I work in. I will work at the table. I will work downstairs. I will work in my office space. I will work outside, but I also realize that I'm a creature of habit.

And when things change it totally threw me off and I I will admit that.

I was not expecting this, so it's an interesting lesson for me to learn because I kind of think that like, I want to be alone. But instead, like I actually found that I really enjoy having someone else around. So that brings me to what can I actually learn from this situation that I did not like?  Well couple of things like one if Mr. Chaos Freelancer ever does go back to the office full time or even part time like I'm going to need a plan.

That might look like doing a lot of Co working, which I'm lucky to have found a group that really likes doing Co working. So doing Co working with other people, maybe going out to work, like going to a coffee shop or something like that to put me in a position where there are people around me to motivate me to get things done or, when I realized things were kind of going off the rails yesterday and today, Thursday and Friday. Like I put in a little system of rewards. I was like, OK, if you get all of your work done, you can get off at this time and then you can take like, a like a dance class.

So that's what I've done yesterday and today. So like kind of incentivizing myself.

So here's my question for you. What type of environment do you like to work in?

And what type of environment have you been accustomed to work in, and are they the same thing, or are they not the same thing? Like do you like to work in deeply quiet areas of your house, or do you like to work in a Co working space but have you become accustomed to working in front of the TV with your children next to you? Or have you become accustomed to working all alone, even though you don't like it?

I'm just interested in hearing like is there a disparity between what you've become accustomed and what you like, or are there gaps in your environment because what I have learned is there are super gaps in my environment. I do need to make plans when things change, but also.

So I'm learning like maybe I'm not as much of A lone wolf as I thought I was. Anyway, that's all for today. I hope you have a great weekend. Fall is going to come up and hit us in the face on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it. So happy fall y'all.