AnywhereMan

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.

Lisa Kanarek wins the AnywhereMan Award for my favorite blog title: Working Naked. Lisa is a home office expert who puts on seminars, writes books, and offers consulting to companies and individuals wishing to have an aspect of working from home in their operations.

Lisa is also the subject of my first AnywhereMan interview. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know her a little bit better through her blog, this interview, and even a guest post I wrote for her last week. She truly is a working-from-home expert and I think you’ll really enjoy this interview…minus me, the newbie, learning how to facilitate an interview. Good thing Lisa is a seasoned pro!

Here’s a bit more about Lisa from her site:

Lisa Kanarek is one of the nation’s leading home office experts and the author of several books including Home Office Solutions, Organizing Your Home Office For Success and 101 Home Office Success Secrets. She is the founder of HomeOfficeLife, a firm that advises corporations and individuals on all aspects of working from home and is founder of this blog.

Kanarek has been a guest on several national programs including Good Morning America, CNN Financial News, CBS Up-to-the-Minute, CNBC, American Public Radio, Movie & a Makeover, Public Radio’s Marketplace and Voice of America radio. Kanarek has been featured—as an author and in interviews—in hundreds of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, Success, Money, Entrepreneur, Cosmopolitan, Dwell, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Marie Claire and Redbook.

Whoa! Well, add “AnywhereMan.com” to that impressive list. Thanks for your time and fantastic insights, Lisa!