Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not

August on Cape Cod is like Christmas at Macy's, Springbreak in Cabo and Mardi Gras in NOLA, all rolled into one. Not really. It just takes 30 seconds longer to pull out onto Route 6 and the wait for lobster rolls is approximately 75% longer than you want it to be... That said, I've been super busy entertaining a rotating cast of houseguests, who I've been enjoying immensely – but when 12 hours go by and I haven't looked at my laptop once, or I've been out of LTE range for more than an hour out on a boat or at the beach, I start to feel this innate sense of mild panic, the one that reminds me that I should be working – at least a little bit, at all times. I experience a low-grade nagging even on the days where everyone has off: national holidays, long weekends, vacation days. With no boss or manager to keep you in line, an independent contractor is 100% responsible for staying on target with deadlines and not letting emails linger too long, unreplied to. I fight a perceived stigma that remote workers spend their days lallygagging, and so I attempt to preempt that line of thinking by replying instantly to emails and project requests. That's part of what makes me a great asset to my clients and also part of what I need to work on for my own peace of mind.