Why Working from Home is Not Ideal for Productivity or Business
Working from home sounds ideal to most freelancers or remote workers but in practice it is very difficult to maintain. Working in a shared office can overcome virtually all of the difficulties in creating a perfect work location in your home.
Firstly, working from home has the advantages in the areas of the daily commute, your own environment, minimizing costs such as lunches, transit, or even coffee costs. But conversely, the daily commute can be time to plan, reflect, or even communicate. Most coworking locations will now help defray lunch and coffee costs with kitchen amenities & fridges, enabling meals brought from home and onsite coffee amenities.
Many companies are now moving towards allowing employees to ‘work from home’ or remotely by using online communication tools that indicate that the worker is logged on and engaged with other team members and the chose remains for the worker to choose the most productive environment for them. Home is the obvious choice if children responsibilities are required however for virtually all other factors working from an office near to home has much better advantages for remote workers.
These are the top things you need to consider when choosing a regular place to work from…
Working in Isolation is Tough
Well, it is difficult to work on your own – you miss the hum of working with others… We think it hampers creativity somewhat and at the very least the ability to swap ideas or ways around roadblocks. Working from home may seem like the most desirable thing however many a times it can prove to be really isolating. One of the most important benefits of working in creative office workspaces is that you are bound to meet different types of people which widens your knowledge and skill base.
Lack of Control
Working from home may be optimum for some but for the employer, working from an office means that the worker is somewhat connected to other workers and commerce which is more conducive to productivity than home based distraction. For this reason there is more control over the work environment in a creative shared office than a home environment.
Self Discipline And Energy Are Required.
Working from home requires a larger amount of energy to maintain productivity focus and self discipline to complete the work. In an office environment these elements happen naturally with others engaged in similar activity so it is less draining on the worker to maintain focus.
Consider Opportunities to Collaborate and Skill Up
Working in a shared office environment produces opportunities to bump into people who are doing similar things differently and are often using tools of trade (digital or software tools) to get better results. I remember in my early days as a home based freelancer that the world around me was moving fast and I wasn’t keeping up with change. The transition to a workplace enabled me to see the software that I needed to adopt to overcome some client based problems leading to better opportunities for growth.
