[RegBarclay]

Not a freelancer, but I've worked remotely...

> It gets pretty dang lonely sometimes, particularly if you’re working remotely. I don’t care if you’re an introvert or extrovert, it’ll affect you either way.

I'm an introvert. I was lonely. It does affect you.

> But for maximum productivity, your routine should involve getting dressed, brushing your teeth, and treating it like a “real job”.

I had to do this. If I wasn't wearing street shoes, I wasn't "at work."

[sz4kerto]

One of the best thing in working remotely is that I don't have to wear shoes.

I could work very productively without these routines; the problem was that I could not switch off.

[cm2012]

I think it helps to be married. I can honestly say I'm never lonely as a freelancer (2 years now, I almost never see clients).

[spirodonfl]

Add a baby to the mix. Suddenly you've got more human interaction than you can imagine in a given day.

[andy_adams]

FWIW, I've been married the whole time I've been a freelancer, and the loneliness didn't settle in until year 5 or so. Your spouse will probably not want to talk shop all the time, and those types of conversations (tech, business, etc) were what I missed the most. But maybe I'm just excessively sensitive!

[Cymen]

I've found tech meetups scratch that itch a little bit but I'm 2 years into remote (with a wife and 2 kids) so maybe more is coming... Just curious if you tried that and if it worked or not for you?

[andy_adams]

I've only started going to tech meetups recently, as an attempt to socialize. It's definitely helped! I basically avoided it for the first 6 years, so I'd recommend it very much.

[ido]

When I was freelancing full time I would go to a share office 3 days per week.

[RegBarclay]

My wife works too, but not at home, so...

It was cool during school breaks to have my older kids at home. Cool during lunch. Not so cool when I had to break up disagreements.

It didn't get really bad for me until I'd been at home 5 or 6 years.

[loopfor]

I second this. I've been freelancing for about 2 years as well and I don't feel lonely because I'm married.

[koffiezet]

I get what you mean... I'm a freelance and work mostly on location. Partially because getting people together and convincing/guiding technical people is a large aspect of my job - which is virtually impossible to do remotely.

I'm also actually pretty introvert, and could lock myself up for days or weeks without seeing anyone - but that's on my terms. When it's not and there's no clear light at the end of the tunnel, that simply wouldn't work for me. The niche I found currently offers a nice balance - but I have to push myself for the social interactions that are required for the thing I do.