The first weeks were a bit hard. Loneliness wasn’t the problem

The first weeks were a bit hard. Loneliness wasn't the problem—I was in constant contact with clients by e-mail and phone. But I did feel claustrophobic(患幽闭恐怖症的). With wheels on my desk chair and the refrigerator just two feet away, I could work for twelve straight hours without ever standing up. There are no physical separation between my living room and work table, so the only way I found to feel like I was going "home" at the end of the day was to forbid my use of the working chair. At nine-thirty at night, when I turned my computer off, I felt a bit like the family dog reaching the high point of its day: "Whoohoo! I get to go for a walk!" Then, around eleven-thirty, I'd found myself turning on the computer again to solve some work issue that was pre-occupying me…

At the same time, I discovered that working this way had definite advantages. Not only did I save an hour from going to work and back home, I also gained a great deal of control over my time. There were fewer interruptions than in an office, I could schedule meetings and phone calls in blocks to increase the productive time around them, and the easy access to my workspace late at night and on weekends could obviously be of mixed effects. This was especially important to me since, in addition to consulting work, I was writing fiction and planning a new business. Working at home allowed me to manage all of these activities at once without losing significant sleep. This turned out to be well worth the claustrophobia, which also faded as I became more used to the new routine. A short walk in the late afternoon could reduce the shut-in feeling and make mre get energetic again to work through the evening.