Finally settling in to my home bakery…

I honestly, didn’t want to work from home. I know that’s not how most people feel, but, as an extrovert, I worried about my social interactions.

I discussed it with friends and family for months. “Do you think the markets will provide enough interaction for the week, so I’m good at home?” “Yes,” was the general consensus. My introverted friends were baffled that I cared about it so much, haha. Thankfully, everyone was right. It’s just enough interaction and change to keep things interesting all week long.

Everyone talks about introverts needing their solitary and quiet time to recharge, and everyone talks about extroverts needing socialization to recharge. But no one talks about the mental aspects of isolation for an extrovert (cue the eye rolls from introverts). I’m sure it’s very similar to the overstimulation of an introvert. I get really tired if I’m at home alone in long stretches (days, not day) and I start recognizing my pain levels a little too much. I try to distract myself with music, and podcasts, and shows, and movies, while baking. But it’s, honestly, no substitute for a conversation. I’m so much less aware of my pain and fatigue levels when I’m talking to others.

So here I am at home every day, a home I barely saw the first two years after I purchased it. And it was definitely an adjustment for me. First, I like the stability of a routine, so I figured I should establish a routine as a home bakery. Then came the outside commentary, “You can bake whenever you want, you don’t have to get up at 5am anymore.” “You can wake up without an alarm and just have slow days of work, you don’t need to work so hard.”

So, like everything, I did an experiment. I got up for a week at the same time every day, and had my whole week mapped out (baking is so much planning, after all) and I was super productive. I mean, workouts, appointments, baking, packaging, admin, free time, done, done, and done. Then, I made a sort of general “to do” list and woke up without an alarm for a week. By the time I got to the end of the “lazy days” week, I had barely finished anything. I hadn’t adequately met any of my list goals and I was super stressed about the Saturday market and how late I would be up that Friday night to get it all done. So, yes, I need a routine. I need to schedule my down time and my relaxing. I need to schedule my lunch breaks, and I stopped worrying if other people thought it was too busy or rigid.

When the market season really ramped up, and I was at 4 markets a week, the routine mattered. It was seven months of “you better schedule XYZ or you’ll never do it” whirlwind. Here’s the thing about baking, you can plan it all and make a list and estimate time, but delays happen. Do I really want to have a slow morning if I know it’s a 12 hour bake day? Because a 12 hour bake day may accidentally become a 15 hour bake day. I’m a day person, not a vampire. I’m absolutely useless after 7pm, so I can’t get up at 7am, drink coffee for an hour, and decide to start my day after a little dilly dallying around...that’s what my (maybe) day off is for.

Then holiday season hits and you can forget a doctor appointment or seeing a friend. I think I listened to Christmas music from November until last month because it is just soothing and nostalgic to me. And I made it, so far, without much isolation or without sacrificing my social interactions, although markets cancelled due to weather have royally sucked (so says the bank account).

I’m a year in, officially, and a little less rigid about my routine (I only set an alarm five days a week now instead of seven) and sometimes I run an errand that wasn’t scheduled or take a little midday yoga break. But for the most part, I’m a business owner and it’s nearly a 24/7 job, so the routine helps me immensely.

The commute isn’t terrible either.