This week I ticked off one of my 2023 goals – giving a coworking space a go. After 9 months of working from home, apart from the odd meeting or event, it was about time. I’ve heard of a really lovely space near me, so a freelance colleague and I decided to spend the day there to test it out. Added bonus of catching up across the day. What was the verdict?
Commuting Faff
I’ve forgotten the faff of commuting. Of unplugging chargers, locating headphones, prepping food, and packing those “what-if” things. Unfortunately it also fell on a day when I needed both laptops (mine and the one a charity has issued me for their work) so both of those had to be squeezed in at an extra what felt like 15kg. I walked my son to school and after waiting for a bus that didn’t materialise, I finally made it at about 9.30am.
Orientation
We got “desks” on a long table with people working all the way down both sides. You get an allocated section of the table, with charging sockets and a little leaflet with wifi codes and upcoming events. I had people both sides of me and it took a while to feel comfortable in the space. I’m so used to walking upstairs into my little office with everything ready to go, it was another faff to set things up and actually get your head in place of being ready to work – where does your bag go? Where do you hang your coat? Does my laptop need charging? What’s the coffee situation here? Where are the loos? What’s the wifi code? Where do I go for meetings I have booked?
It’s so People-y
My “desk” was between two guys, and I felt very conscious of the small space between us and a potential clash of coffee mugs/pens/mice. It was hard not to feel generally self-conscious, and it made me realise how out of practice I am at being in an office these days. We found we were sat opposite each other, and I wasn’t sure how much we were allowed to talk. A big part of booking the space was to catch up but it felt like we had to learn the rules a bit first, watching what everyone else was up to. I also realised how much I move about when I work and how much I talk to myself when writing, something I tried hard not to do and probably added to the initial self-consciousness!
The main thing, though, was how distracting it was being surrounded by other people and their interesting conversations. Several people around the table had regular meetings via Teams calls. The guy to my right coded all day, consistently. No conversations. The guy on my left, however, took three short calls full of amazing information, and seemed to watch YouTube videos for the rest of the day. My friend and I agreed via WhatsApp we couldn’t concentrate because neither of us could work out how someone has a job like that and also we were left hanging on several of his amazing anecdotes on calls and had to fill in the gaps in ourselves. It definitely needed a strong ability to focus in the busy downstairs space. And good headphones.
Fun Facilities
It’s really central so you’ve got a train station, post office, café and shops right on your doorstep. There’s free proper coffee, a range of posh teas, every milk possible in the kitchen areas, pods for quiet meetings (some of which you can book), a printer with unlimited paper and ink, there’s comfy sofa spaces, a range of office dogs brought in by people and a bar that sells drinks, snacks and a simple lunch option each day. We got a quick tour that showed us the whole range of spaces that they have – particularly meeting rooms, fixed office spaces and desks that we liked the look of more with a bit more comfort and privacy than the long tables downstairs. It’s been renovated really well and had a fun, informal feel.
Costs Vs Return
As part of our tour, we got the spiel about membership – everything from “resident” which means you’ve got 24/7 access (and some people really do use it apparently, especially when working internationally) to 40 hours a month which is their lowest membership, at roughly a day a week. You get discounted meeting room prices, access to their member-only events programme, and access to their Slack group of over 1,000 members so some significant benefits. But at just over a £100 a month, it still feels like money I’d rather not spend right now. We paid £30 all in for a day pass and decided that we’re happy giving it another few goes on the day rate, but not yet committing to a membership.
Ergonomics
Something I definitely noticed was the difference in set up between home and here. I’ve slowly built myself a pretty good set up at home of laptop riser, wireless keyboard and mouse, second screen, decent chair and footrest. Halfway through the day I felt the lack of it, and I think that would be a big factor in whether I’d commit to full membership.
Networking
I can see how one of the biggest benefits is the ability to meet all the other people there on the day, or part of the wider Slack network. Because I went with a friend, I wasn’t necessarily too focused on meeting others but I did bump into a friend of a friend, and we had a quick chat with some photographers who genuinely offered when I joked I could do with some professional photos. You can see how easily connections could be made. We met some lovely dogs, and to be honest, that was for than enough to count it as a good day.
Motivation
One of the main reasons to try the space was working out if mixing up my office for the day helped give me more focus for work, in case I’d got stagnant/too complacent at home. There was something fun about being somewhere new, especially with the ability to share a lunch break with someone and have all those little conversations about an email you’d just had, how to tackle a tricky issue or just generally catch up about life. Generally I’m really self-motivated (to be honest, I think you’d struggle as a freelancer if you didn’t) but I do really well having the accountability of someone being there if I’ve got something to do that I’m putting off. So I gave myself one solid goal for the day, of finalising a draft on a report I’ve been working on that I’d had trouble completing. It took the whole day, but I did just about manage it, and I think the accountability of someone else being there helped.
Conclusion
It was a different way to spend the day, and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think it was the most productive day because you spend so much time orientating yourself to a new space and the difference of working in a large open plan office. I was way too nosey and had to work hard to concentrate on my own things. But it’s got great potential once you’re more familiar with the space, particularly if you pick days with minimal meetings and key tasks you want accountability for getting done. There’s also a whole load of cafés to work through locally, and dangerously one of my favourite running shops nearly opposite too, so more than enough reasons to spend another day making office dog friends, I mean, working.
Photo by Shridhar Gupta on Unsplash