Welcome to the second reflection on my experience with remote work! One thing that I struggled with at first, no surprise, was not having coworkers. Editing and writing are often imagined as solitary work - and in many ways they can be, especially for scholars and students.
But even if I'm alone while I'm editing, I often remind myself that the text in front of me is the author's work, or I'm adding a query that's addressed to the author. As independent as the work is, it's not really lonely. Still, working with an editorial board at least involves weekly, in-person team meetings, whereas freelance editing and writing for a remote business do not.
So how do I still bring the social aspects of work into my remote work setting? One key way is a weekly co-working group that I put together with a few of my colleagues. Once a week we pick a new cafe to try and spend the afternoon working beside each other.
We keep the timing flexible. Maybe one of us settles in at 1:00pm, maybe another doesn't arrive until 2:00pm; sometimes one of us has to leave at 4:00pm, but sometimes others can stay until 6:00pm. Having this loose come-and-go time takes off the pressure. Our time together becomes not a formal meeting but an open space where we can edit or write with supportive people around us, even if we aren't all working on the same project.
It can even be helpful that we aren't doing the same work. We often take a pause to hear about each other's different writing projects or share what sort of text we're editing. It can be a nice brain break to chat about something new for a few minutes and then return to our own projects with refreshed minds.
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