trendpreneur

The final part of a series looking into the realities of professional blogging for others. Check out part 1 and part 2 if you missed them!

The day-to-day life of a blogger can be a lonely one. Although you may be working as part of a large team, you don’t end up face to face with them on a daily basis; generally it’s you, your laptop and… that’s it. The very technologies that allow us to form large, multidisciplinary teleworking teams are also the same ones that cause us to be more isolated than ever.

Fortunately, loneworkers, writers, entrepreneurs and stay-at-home parents have all perfected the art of not going off your rocker while you’re alone with your thoughts and nowt else all day. Here are a few of the ’stay healthy, stay sane’ working and living habits I’ve picked up, both as an entrepreneur and blogger, with a slant towards the cheap ‘n’ cheerful — after all, blogging doesn’t pay that well!

Cabin fever

Being stuck indoors all day is a dream for some and a nightmare for others. I would go so far to say that if you really don’t like the idea of working from home, or know that you are undisciplined and prone to play computer games all day instead of get on with some work, you might want to reconsider your choice of career. However, there are a few things that can help, even if you fall into the latter group.

Treat the house as a workplace. Ideally, if you can, set up a dedicated ‘work’ area that you only use for.. well.. work. In terms of technology, maybe it isn’t feasible to have one ‘leisure’ PC and one ‘work’ PC, but blogging is a notoriously portable job; set up your laptop with work-centric stuff, and leave the games on your desktop. Even if it’s just your kitchen table, moving rooms and not having the distraction of a warm, fluffy bed to crawl into on bad days can make a big shift in your productivity. Open the curtains or blinds, especially in winter months: it’s amazing what sunlight can do to your mood.

As well as location, treat your day like a work day as well. Set up a little ritual to get your day started off and get you into the mindset of work. Mine used to be to brew up a fresh cafetiere, set up my laptop and read BBC News for a bit, almost exactly what I used to do at the start of the day in my previous job.

Out and About

Ideally, and I can’t stress this enough, leave the house. A morning coffee or newspaper run has the dual purpose of separating your day into ‘pre-work’ and ‘work time’, giving you a ritual and getting you some all-important fresh air to wake you up and start your brain and creative juices flowing. I can’t count how many times I spent a day totally inside and then went out the next day, feeling ten times more creative and productive.

If you’re lucky enough to live near a park or other pleasant place to walk, prescribe yourself a lunchtime or evening walk as well. Listen to a podcast or cram in a few errands if you hate ‘wasted’ time, but making outside a regular place to visit will do nothing but good for your work habits. I think this is what I regret the most about my time blogging; I lived in a house with an enormous garden, but would admire it from behind double glazing. I should have been in that garden every day working, as I miss it terribly now.

A trick that works well for me, even now, is to pop out for a coffee and take my laptop with me. (I’m writing this in Starbucks, in fact.) The pleasant buzz of background conversation combined with the kick from caffeine are definitely a jump-start for me; of course, your mileage may vary. On a blogger’s salary I wouldn’t do this every day, mind. Fortunately, there are free places you can work, depending on the local provision of wi-fi; libraries are great for when I need to get my head down and concentrate for a few hours.

Soylent Green is People

Maybe you chose the life of an Internet hermit because you hate people. Well, depending on the blog you write for, some of the comments might make you hate people even more (the more high profile the blog, the lower the quality of comments, unfortunately). Even so, humans like human contact and — as with the blindingly obvious ‘leave the house’ tip — ‘talk to other people’ is top of the list when it comes to not going insane working for and by yourself.

During the period when I worked pretty much non-stop as a blogger and site lead, I lived in the UK while the blogs I managed, and the staff, were based in the US. This meant two things: firstly, most of my day there was nobody awake to work with, which was probably a more productive arrangement than otherwise. Secondly, it also meant that — as a naturally nocturnal person — I was in real danger of my working and waking hours slipping into GMT-5.

What rescued me was the fact I lived with other people, and socialised regularly. It’s hard to be a sleepy hermit when you’re being woken up by others’ daily routine, urged to go to the pub, and so forth. I was nowhere near appreciative enough of these things when I had them. If you live with your partner, children or friends don’t fall into the trap of working all day long and leaving no time for them; use them, and their ‘normal’ schedules, to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

Even if you live alone (or, as I do now, with flatmates you hardly know) there are plenty of opportunities for bloggers and loneworkers to socialise in the flesh. Almost every city seems to have some sort of regular meetup for us, whether it’s London’s Tuttle or Edinburgh’s Friday Coffee Morning (an event that I have yet to wake up early enough for). The Internet is great at facilitating the creation of arbitrary social groups, but you have to get out there and meet them!

Switch Off

This piece of advice is one I would do well to learn; I find it very hard to simply switch off and walk away from work, as I’ve been embroiled in academic and freelance cultures for far too long. Still, if you can manage it, let me know how. The concept is that — as with switching on at the start of the day — you turn your work off when you’re done. Don’t check your blog’s email account, don’t hunt for new stories, sign off your work IM account. Everythign can wait until tomorrow.

Of course, the downside is you may miss urgent problems and breaking news, but that’s why the blog has more than one member on staff, right? I personally never got the hang of ‘quota done, switch off for the rest of the day’, but I can see it being valuable — especially if you have a partner, family or other commitments that won’t appreciate you checking your email every five minutes.

You Are What You Eat

Much as we abhor skeletal crow Gillian McKeith telling us to eat sprouted beans and seeds, she did at least get the basic principle right. One of the great underrated advantages to working for yourself is you get to control what you eat, when you eat, and you generally have a lot of flexibility when it comes to cooking something complicated (you can write a post while it’s in the oven!).

That said, it’s also really easy to just slip into the habit of spending far too long in front of a screen and only stopping to consume the odd bit of junk food. I’ve spent a lot of time recently looking at nutrition as well as rebuilding the way I eat, and although this isn’t the place for a long diatribe on the evils of carbs, if I could go back in time and give the pro-blogger version of myself a couple of bits of advice, they’d be: Less caffeine, more vegetables, a lot more protein, cut the snacks by the PC.

You are what you eat, and especially if you spend a lot of time indoors, fruit and veg are really important to get you those oh-so-important vitamins. Do you want to turn into a greasy pizza? Exactly.

For the blogger without a budget

If you’re fortunate enough to not have financial concerns, there are a few extra things you might want to do for health, happiness and sanity. My first choice would be to join a gym (and, money no object, get a personal trainer). Not only does it get you outside regularly, it gets you some great thinking time and the ability to meet people — not that anyone in my gym ever seemed to speak to anyone else.

Secondly, although even top blogs like TechCrunch have gone very far operating out of someone’s house, renting a desk or office allows you to truly separate work and play. The upside: You might be able to get desk space very cheaply right now, especially since many companies are hunting for ways to make ends meet. The downside? Blogging becomes more and more like the 9-5 job you left behind.

Keeping a pet can also be a great addition to your life, although if you’re a young renting professional you may not be able to get your landlord to agree. Pets do require a lot of care and attention, but can help with cabin fever, force you to go outside to walk them, and even make you new friends.

Travelling is also a nice way to either take a complete break from work (leave your laptop at home) or to find new inspiration away from familiar surroundings. If you’re feeling claustrophobic or afflicted with writer’s block, why not go away for a bit and see if you feel renewed. As well as travelling, luxury breaks such as spa or golfing days can help reinvigorate you. You might also be able to travel and meet up with fellow bloggers from the site, putting names to faces at last!

Don’t forget to keep yourself rewarded as you go; if you create a particularly popular post, make the front page of Digg or Techmeme, or even get a pay raise, why not treat yourself? Nobody else will! Whether it’s a manicure, haircut or new gadget, keep yourself happy. After all, looking after yourself is the core of how to stay sane while working alone.