How to Work From Home When You're an Extrovert

Hi my name is MK, and if you know anything about me (check me out), I THRIVE off of human interaction. Human interaction is one of the biggest reasons I decided to go into the wedding industry. I love collaborating with others and getting to know my clients on a deeper level! But when I first started I obviously didn't have clients right away. I spent months and months trying to build up my brand, write blog posts, and network through as many avenues as I could. This meant sitting at my kitchen table, morning ‘til night, with the exception of the gym and the golden retriever puppy I walked daily for grocery money. As an insane extrovert, this was really REALLY challenging.

So, how does an extrovert work from home without going insane? While I do not know all of the answers, I can give a little solace and advice from my personal experience.

1. Give yourself a routine. I used to wake up early, sit at my table and think “Hmmm what should I do right now?” This resulted in some life progress, but mostly watching buzzfeed videos. Once I decided that breakfast time was used for social media interaction, my mornings weren’t so slow moving. Mornings look almost identical to one another, which makes for less mental effort. From there afternoons are dedicated to the meetings and things that need to get done for just that week or so.
2. Plan social interactions. Waiting around for a sporadic dinner date or night out left me anxious and sullen when I wasn’t actually sure when I was going to next see my friends. Unlike my friends with roommates, down time still meant there was someone around to tell random things to. So, I joined a kickball league with my pals and knew that every Monday I was going to be able to chat and catch up with them. From there I planned weekly Wednesday dinners and then left other days open for my random week plans.
3. Do work outside of your home. Working at the kitchen table in your most comfy sweatshirt is unparallel to most, but sometimes a little external judgement can jumpstart your work day. You can stop by your local coffee shop or get a shared space desk one a week, whatever gives you the anxiety of trying on your jeans for the first time since last winter. More often than not, I was motivated to do more work because I had left my apartment to do just that. At home, it was so easy to decide to clean my bathroom and count that as prodcutivity.
4. Turns out I actually love working alone. The reason my transition to self-employment was difficult was because I had never had the experience of working alone. I mean who would? Turns out a dance party at 11:15am to DMX and no one to tell me no is better than work sponsored happy hours. If I want to work at 6am or 9:30pm, I can. If I want to put HGTV on in the background and drink some wine, I can. That being said, it was still because of the first 3 points that I can do most of these things. Life is about balance and while working from home can be great when you need alone time...sometimes you need to fulfill those extrovert needs.