Despite the fact that the coworking industry has been around since 2005, it still grows its popularity at a rapid pace. And this is for a good reason.
People choose to work in coworking spaces because it motivates them to perform their work more productively. What's more important, any coworking space offers various perks starting from convenient workspaces, a friendly environment ending with additional technology benefits.
Nevertheless, by having all these advantages coworkers tend to suffer from a decreasing level of work productivity.
How to keep your work productivity on a high level working at a coworking space?
In this post, you will find out 12 tips that will help you escape coworking space routine work and boost your productivity.
Let's get to the gist!
1. Try to Abstract Yourself From the Distractions
There is a huge difference between working at home or an old-fashioned office and a coworking space. At home, you might be completely alone or with a few of your family members. If you happened to work in some standard office, you know that the number of employees is limited with the size of the company you're working for.
Working at the coworking space is the opposite experience. It is all about the distractions you are going to feel first-hand. These distractions prevent you from completing the tasks you are planned to execute.
And the very first distraction is noise.
How to hide from the noise happening around you?
You should concentrate on your work and use either headphones or earmuffs. Headphones would be the best choice for those people who prefer to listen to music during work. However, if you're distracted from any source of sound, you should use earmuffs.
Coworking space is the place where different people work. Thus, the next distraction that you might experience is having tiresome people around you. These people can draw you away from your work with some questions, suggestions, etc.
How to avoid this distraction?
You can put up a warning sign as "Please, don't detain from work" that would let others know about your unwillingness to communicate.
The third distraction is yourself. Yes, it is not a joke. Lots of people can't help but distract themselves by doing things not related to their work.
Therefore, you must work on your self-discipline. It means no watching YouTube, no chatting on socials, no visiting third-party resources. Just you and your work.
2. Make Sure the Work You Perform Makes Sense
It is not a secret that coworking spaces are widely popular among start-ups. These new-born companies work on their projects renting spaces in local coworking spaces. And there are cases when the start-ups get burned due to one reason - the employees don't see any sense in their work.
How to understand the meaning of the tasks your team performs?
First of all, you must know how to start a small business online and understand the concepts of the business you do. See the connection "Your product + your target audience's issues + solution you offer" and have a ready-to-go marketing funnel.
The rest depends on how you can organize the work of your team and assign the responsibilities between the team members.
The same pieces of advice you should follow if you are a freelancer who works on different projects.
3. Don't Forget to Spend Your Time Out of Work
Did you know that the optimal time of intensive work for our brain is 52 minutes with a 17 minutes break? It was proven with scientific research made by DeskTime.
But does it mean that you must follow these numbers?
Nope. It is completely up to you. You can take breaks as many times as you want. But the productivity of your work shouldn't suffer from this.
During the breaks, you must switch your attention to the opposite type of activity. In the case of working in a coworking space with a laptop, you should do some physical activities like body stretching, walking outside the space, push-ups, whatever makes your blood circulate.
The goal of the breaks is to unbend the mind.
4. Control Your Time Effectively
Time is precious. You can't waste it pointlessly. Lack of time leads to nonfulfillment of the tasks.
How to manage your working time effectively?
First and foremost, you must create a plan of work for the day. It should list all the tasks that you must complete during the work. Plus, it should take into account the breaks that you will have.
If you can't control your working time manually, you can use RoundPie that will do this job for you. Just switch it on and never watch the time. Focus on your work instead.
5. Communicate With Other Members of a Space
Coworking spaces give refuge to different people who work on various projects. Thus, there is no way to escape communication being a part of a coworking squad.
However, senseless chatting leads to procrastination of work and wasting your time. Instead of talking of sundry matters, you should focus on building friendship and working relationships with other people in the space. It might turn into a partnership eventually.
Find your time during dinner time and talk to your coworking neighbors. Show your interest in their work, what projects they run, what issues they have, what help they might need. Seek common ground and you will find another project opportunity as well.
6. Procrastination Is Your Enemy - Fight It
Everyone has ever had a grapple with procrastination. Procrastination is a very dangerous thing that can harm your work performance drastically.
Why does it happen to people who work?
It happens when you are forced to do a job that you don't like. Or even hate. For example, freelancers work on different projects that they don't necessarily like.
Let's say, you are a freelancer who has to repurpose a written step-by-step guide into a flowchart. You don't know many things about design but you can use a free flowchart maker tool for this purpose. You start working with the tool and realize that it is not as simple as you thought to repurpose this guide into a brand-new flowchart.
What are you going to do?
You start procrastinating with this task. But the task must be done by the end of the working day. How to step away from procrastination then?
Follow these actionable pieces of advice:
- Break your task into a few subtasks and focus on completing them one-by-one
- Always set the deadlines for each subtask
- Take a break after each subtask completion
As a result, you will see how procrastination disappears.
7. Optimize Your Work With Technology
One of the benefits of working in coworking spaces is that they provide you with various technology perks that can improve work effectiveness.
Starting with the printers, scanners, air conditioners, and other technical devices, you will have the opportunity of using different apps that will make your work easier.
For example, you can benefit from using an app that syncs your events to your laptop. Or you might need to launch a webinar and some webinar software platforms will help you with this. Or if you deal with video content, you will definitely need tools to create this type of content. Afterwards, you will have to promote it using video marketing strategies and tricks.
Using technology in your daily working routine is a must option that you should never neglect.
8. Reward Yourself for Completed Tasks
When we bring up the kids, we always reward them for some personal achievements. This simple goodwill gesture inspires children to keep on studying, obeying their parents, and do all the best.
The same approach you should take during your work in a coworking space.
Once you complete a task, you must reward yourself. What kind of reward you deserve depends on your own preferences. For instance, if you like chocolate, then eat one. If you are fond of having a cup of coffee in the nearby cafe, go there and drink it.
Every work must be rewarded. And your work is not an exception.
9. Prioritize Your Tasks Correctly
You can't start a working day at a coworking space without a prepared plan of work.
Let's say you're working on some project with a restricted execution time. You have two weeks to get the project done.
How to complete the project in time?
Firstly, you must explore the scope of work. Afterwards, split the entire project into a few main tasks. These tasks should be divided into subtasks. Then, prioritize the subtasks and complete them accordingly.
By following this simple scheme of work execution you will never miss the deadline.
10. Never Forget About Taking Care of Yourself
Sometimes having a flexible working schedule and a wonderful working environment might turn you into a workaholic. Workaholism takes a toll on your health. And the very first issue that you will have is lack of sleep.
At first, your organism utilizes additional resources of your body and mind to help you work extra hours. But if you don't recover yourself after hard work, your productivity will decrease.
How to avoid insomnia for all costs?
You must have breaks during your work and spend your time in the open air. Do physical exercises, don't drink too much coffee, and never get hooked on energy drinks.
The next thing you should keep an eye on is your back. Don't sit for a few hours at the table. Instead, you can work lying on your back - coworking spaces are accommodated with the couches and other pieces of furniture where you can lie down.
Again, do more gymnastics elements. These exercises can improve your back effectively.
11. Keep Your Workspace Clean
Do you like to work at a table that is covered with dust? Obviously, not.
Dirty working place demoralizes. It brings negative emotions and your desire to work starts to fade away. Make it a rule to start your working day by cleaning up your working place. Buy a few dusters, wet towel wipes, and dust furniture.
If you have an extra budget, you can hire a cleaning worker who would clean your working space right before you come to the job.
So, don't forget to keep your workspace clean.
12. Mix Your Monotonous Work With Some Activity
Work becomes unbearable when it is boring. Boring work is monotonous as a rule. And boredom is an arch-enemy of productivity.
The only way to escape routine boring work is by mixing it with some activity. If you happened to notice a ping pong in a coworking space, go and play this sports game. However, if there is no special site for performing physical activity in the coworking space, it is not a big deal. You can find any cozy corner where you can do push-ups, at least.
One more good piece of advice is to find your time during your work and visit a gym. Let's say, you work eight hours per day. You can take a "sports break" after four hours of your work. It will give you more energy to accomplish the rest of the work that is left.
Conclusion
Working in a coworking space reminds you of a chase for work productivity. You can never know whether your working day will be productive or not. Besides, any work tends to transform into a daily routine.
Don't delude yourself by thinking that non-stop working is the only solution on how to achieve productivity. This is the only way to get burnt out.
Thus, use the suggested tips on how to avoid a coworking space routine and increase your productivity.
About the author:
Mariya Koracheva is a digital marketing specialist with writing expertise that spans across online marketing, SEO and blogging. When not working, Mariya likes to devote her time to the family, reading books, travelling. You can send her a message on LinkedIn.
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