Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
1–10 of 129 posts
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#2Excellent personal story on finding the right workspace in a remote situation. Home office vs. Coworking space is a conversation I have with other remote works quite a bit, and the answer is different for everyone.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#3This echoes my current gig to a tee: worked at home for a couple of months, went stir crazy, found an office. For me, the first office space was a hipster cafe type place that was just too freaking noisy. I moved to a Regus office which was ok but Regus were awful so a few of us clubbed together and got a truly shared office with both closed and open spaces for different type of work. I can highly recommend this setup as some days you just need to hole yourself up in a private enclosed office to do brain work. However the open space promotes social interaction and feeds the soul.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#4> If you’re thinking of working remote, then think about what kind of working environment you’re happiest with before you take the job, and make sure you’ll have that environment available to you.
Seems to me that the best part of remote working is the ability to figure out what the best environment is for you. Don't be a theorist, be an experimentalist: try a bunch of different situations and see what you like best. It sounds like the author started down this path, but stopped too soon (at first).
> Are you sad when a lot of your office is out sick, or are you relieved?
Usually relieved, then I wonder why I bothered with an hour of driving to sit in the office by myself, when I could have done that from home.
> Do you get uncomfortable when you’re in quiet environments for too long, or do you revel in them?
Love quiet! My office at work has no windows (not even internal ones); being able to close the door and cut off the outside world is the best!
> Do you feel weirdly lonely when you’re in a noisy coffee shop, or do you feel energized?
Annoyed by the noise mostly. Coffee shops are for getting coffee and getting out. Libraries are way better for actual work, IMO.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#5Getting a girlfriend who also works at home may be hard, but it can fix most of this problem. I liked working while my girlfriend was working at the same time...with some fun interruptions.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#6What's an "off day"?
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#7Excellent personal story on finding the right workspace in a remote situation. Home office vs. Coworking space is a conversation I have with other remote works quite a bit, and the answer is different for everyone.
>>> Home office vs. Coworking space
I'd recommend a mixture of both, plus visits to coffee shops and libraries, depending on what type of work you need done.
Learning what is effective and finding the right balance can be one of the trickiest elements of WFH.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#8What's an "off day"?
A day when you don't feel like you're being productive, even though you're trying to get something done. One of my coworkers wrote a good article (https://medium.com/@jdan/quantifying-my-off-days-27e85f5bc15...) about that, linking it to pomodoro techniques.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#9I joined a co-working space this summer and it was...meh. The people were nice and the facility was great, but I don't really see the point unless your employer is going to pickup the tab and/or you have a small apartment with no office or an insufficient one.
I found myself missing my widescreen monitor, standing desk, and chair. The amount of money I've sunk into my home office felt wasted when I used the co-working space.
And the co-working space would swing between eerily quiet or way too much noise. It seemed weird to go (and pay) for a co-working space where everyone is primarily staring at their laptops.
On the other hand, I would maybe consider going from a two bedroom to a one bedroom apartment if I had a full-time 24/7 use of a co-working space and then the cost would more than even out.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#10This echoes my current gig to a tee: worked at home for a couple of months, went stir crazy, found an office. For me, the first office space was a hipster cafe type place that was just too freaking noisy. I moved to a Regus office which was ok but Regus were awful so a few of us clubbed together and got a truly shared office with both closed and open spaces for different type of work. I can highly recommend this setu…
I run a small coworking space, and we have some private spaces and some public spaces. You can be in a room with a few other folks, or you can be in a room on your own. I switch a lot, and some others do too. It's crazy to me that people think 'one size fits all', regardless of what the size is (open plan office, private space, cubes, etc). Most people need somewhat different workspaces depending on the work they're doing.