AnywhereMan

As many of you know, these days I am primarily getting my work done from the coworking space that I helped start here in Grand Rapids, MN. It’s been a huge plus for me in my freelancing lifestyle. The wifi is fast, the smack-dab-in-the-center-of-town location is ideal, the people are fantastic, and it gets me out of my home and into the hustle and bustle of the “real” working world.

However, lately I’ve been finding that it still does me some good to switch things up on a regular basis. If I get into too much of a pattern doing the same thing over and over, I tend to get restless.

As a result of that, I’ve been making it a goal to take advantage of the times when my wife and kids are gone and do some work at our dining room table. Or I’ll go back to the old standby and head over to the coffee shop for a few hours. It’s amazing how just switching things up a little stimulates my focus and helps me become more productive and/or creative.

So while I’m doing 90% of my work at CommonSpace, being able to change things up here and there keeps me from getting into too much of a predictable pattern.

How about you? Do you like things to be the same each day or do you like to move around a little bit?

Since I’ve been working from CommonSpace for the past few months I’ve realized something that sounds a bit backwards:

I’m more productive when there are more people here.

If it’s just me here for an afternoon (which is the case once in a while), I find that I don’t get as much done. If there are four or five of us here, I get a lot more done.

Maybe it’s because there is activity happening around me. Maybe it’s because I am forced to use more energy to focus. I have no idea. But I find that if others are around me getting things done, I am usually able to put on the earbuds, tune out conversations, and get more done than usual.

This post could be more professionally titled “AnywhereMan Interviewed On The CasJam Blog.”

Earlier this week, Brian Casel of CasJam Media published an interview with me. We had a great time discussing topics such as co-working, freelancing, WordPress, and more. I loved the way he ran the interview as he did a great job making it more of a natural conversation.

You can visit the CasJam blog to view the entire interview. Thanks to Brian (who I have interviewed in the past), and I hope to see some more interviews in the future.

If you’ve been following AnywhereMan over the past few months, you know that I’ve been working with the local Chamber of Commerce to create a coworking space in our town. We’re now up and running and I’ve spent the past few weeks calling CommonSpace home…or home office…or whatever.

My initial response: It’s awesome.

I still technically have an office at home but honestly haven’t even used it since I’ve had the key to CommonSpace. There are a few trends I’ve noticed since I’ve been doing the coworking thing:

• I get up earlier in the morning and get ready right away…no PJ-wearing until noon.
• When I go home for lunch each day, I actually relax. I don’t rush to get back to work, and I don’t have work on my mind the whole time.
• I feel a lot more socially connected and I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of new folks.
• My kids notice when I leave and when I get home, and they’re a lot more excited to be with me at the end of the day.
• I’ve been more productive.

Now, I did spend a few days working from home last week as my family was out of town. I still did not use my actual office and instead set up shop in our living room. Right away I reverted back to sleeping in a bit later, waiting until late morning to get ready for the day, etc.

I’m not saying that coworking is absolutely better than working from home, but so far it’s definitely been a positive experience. One of the only negatives is that I’ve blogged less and done fewer of my videos. I would like to find a way to work video blogging on a regular basis back into the equation and I think I’ve got a few ideas.

I encourage you to look into coworking as an option if you need to give your daily routine a bit of a jump-start. At CommonSpace, we’ve got a membership level that allows you to come in two days per week for $75/month.  Adding some office-time to your schedule might be enough of a change-up to improve the time you spend working from home.

As for that home office? It may be converted to a bedroom soon so my girls can each have their own room. I will still want a quiet place to get work done at home so you may be seeing the birth of the cloffice (closet + office). Stay tuned.