on working from home

For the past 6 months, I have been working from home.  That means at somewhere between 8 and 9 every morning I sequester myself into one of the spare bedrooms upstairs and spend the next 8ish hours typing away or talking to people on the phone using my fancy futuristic headset that reminds me of my call centre days. 

I wasn't sure how I'd be able to cope going into this, but I can now say it's not so bad. 

• Flexible schedule.  
• I can wear whatever I want, although I usually go through the morning routine of breakfast, shower, clean clothes before starting - it doesn't feel right when I skip any of that.  
• No distractions... ok, maybe not so much.

Some of the downsides I've found include:

• Lack of social opportunities - I've gone weeks between sojourns to the office, but it seems others in my group do the same.
• More distractions - In the winter I was trying to stop a squirrel from stealing my bird seed.  Then we got a dog.  A DOG!
• No one to keep an eye on you - I went to the office a few weeks ago and my boss was right behind me.  I was much less distracted that day.

After a few months I wasn't enjoying things so much.  But I realized I had to take the initiative to get over the hurdles I was facing.  That's funny because my level of initiative isn't so great... It's a skill I need to work on, and I have.  Call people when required, distract the dog for long enough to get a project complete, make lists of things that need to get done.

Still not 100% sold on this job, but it is getting better.  I have some paths forward career-wise, but I will need to take certain steps to get there.  It requires things that don't come naturally to me, like ambition, old fashioned gumption, and sticktoitiveness.  I'm always up for learning new things.  Sometimes it's harder to focus on those things that build your character, but after a few years of having a job I wasn't passionate about (although the people were great), it's something I have to try.