One of the things that I love about teleworking is the ability to work independently. I can perform my tasks in my own time, using my own process. This also means that I don’t have to spend a lot of time dealing with office politics. These points make it easy to assume that teleworking by yourself is excellent for productivity, but that’s not always the case.

When we work alone, away from the constant prying eyes of colleagues and supervisors, we tend to lose our competitive edge. I’ve noticed this in myself, too. I haven’t exactly been slacking off or taking my work for granted, but I feel like something’s missing — as if with a bit more push I can get a better, more inspired output.