Soloworking vs. Coworking

Working-alone vs. Coworking

‘Why would you pay to work from somewhere when you can easily find wifi for free in cafes and at home?’ It’s a fair question, sure, but there are countless valid answers. Here are some of my personal reasons why it makes sense to get a coworking space membership.

The Sweatpants Syndrom

You’ve probably seen the memes; freelancers who have Skype meetings, wearing a nice shirt and a blazer, combined with sweatpants and slippers. I’ll admit: I’m guilty. When working from home, it’s just so easy to slip into that habit. I wake up, check my email from bed, decide to open my laptop to just quickly reply to one message and before I realize it, it’s 10.30am and I’ve been working for 3 hours. Hungry and with a meeting starting in 30 minutes, I decide to make myself a good breakfast and quickly make my upper half look presentable; who cares about anything outside webcam view?

Since I started coworking, I became way better at managing a healthy life/work balance. 7AM email checks are only for emergencies, and sweatpants are exclusively for the gym and an occasional rainy Sunday. Work is done at the flex desk, and personal time is exactly that: personal.

The Cave(wo)man Syndrom

Again: guilty. During busy weeks when working from home, it happened far too often that I wouldn’t leave my house for a couple of days in a row. After 3 days, I would go insane and crave some social interaction. I believe that if it would have gone on for much longer, I would have gone to the supermarket just to start conversations with random strangers.

Thankfully, there’s coworking. Even when you’re busy and you don’t have time for long chats, it’s still nice to see familiar faces and to have someone to say hello to at the coffee machine.

The Housewife Or Procrastination Syndrom

There’s a third issue for me when it comes to working from home: deep down inside, I’m a procrastinator and although I got a lot better, when working from home, the Housewife Syndrom acts up. All of a sudden, I NEED to sort out my wardrobe, clean up the basement and recycle the plastic. Most coworking spaces don’t have a basement for me to clean up, so it’s a lot easier to focus on work.

Cafe vs. Coworking Space

Clearly, working from home doesn’t work for me and I know many freelancers and remote workers who feel the same way. So how about working from a café? The wifi is free, you’ve got your social interactions and it would be frowned upon to do your own dishes. Perfect? Well, this video sums up why a coworking space is still the way to go for me.