A Beginner’s Guide to Coworking

I love the concept of coworking. Even though I have worked from home for many years, I sometimes find that I miss things like human interaction, delicious snacks, plants, and unique or super-creative spaces that make life easier for 9-5 days.

Problem? Coworking is a bit like Airbnb, with a lot to choose from, and it can seem a little tedious to get started. The last thing you want to do is spend a hundred (or several hundred) dollars a month on a desk in a place with amenities and work conditions that aren’t much better than your home.

Finding the right coworking space

While you’ve probably heard of WeWork , one of the big coworking companies that is fairly well known for its many unique locations across the country, you may not be as familiar with small coworking companies around your specific location (or any other locations). ). you travelling). Before you can even think about which collaboration spaces might make the most difference to your needs (or aesthetic preferences), you need to know what is there.

We’ve previously looked at tools like Coworker that make it easy to find different jobs around the world based on your specific service needs and location preferences. This is good, but not everything captures. Breather and Regus are both decent tools to try, but these search engines still make me feel like I don’t see everything because, you know, a big company like WeWork doesn’t show up on them.

To make sure you understand everything there is, consider doing a simple Google Maps or Yelp search for coworking and filtering by ratings to make sure you’re only looking at the best of the best and not at random. sketchy coffee shop hitting the results. This is a rough way of finding your next place to collaborate, but you need to make sure you’re not missing out on any obvious gems.

What does your new temporary job need?

While collaborative search engines and listing sites can help you filter out places that only have the amenities you want, even deciding what should appear on your must-have list can be tricky. If you haven’t spent time in a coworking space before, how do you even know what you need?

Some of the attributes and amenities to consider include:

• Fast Internet: While not every coworking space may have fiber, you will definitely want to be able to handle everything from email to uploading videos for a team presentation without feeling your space’s Internet service stuttering. And you don’t just need a thick pipe: consider the wireless capabilities of the room as well. Does it have fast wireless access and many hotspots? Ethernet connections?
• 24/7 Building Access: It sucks to work after work, but sometimes you have to spend fun weekdays editing and collaborating with teams around the world. It will be sad if you can’t hang out in your beautiful (and expensive) coworking space as soon as the clock shows five, even if you’re the only one burning the midnight oil.
• Snacks: When you spend $ 200 north every month at the table, you’d better get a free apple or two, heck. Unlimited access to a pony keg will make a hot summer work day even more refreshing if you enjoy it but don’t need to be greedy.
• Location: Is it easy to get to the place by public transport ? A bike? Walking? While you can have free apples and chips all day long, is the coworking space within walking distance of other delicious food spots? These are the places where you can eat, say, all the time? Would you be able to drive (or a food delivery service of your choice) to where you will be working? Is there ample parking if you want to check in to work?
• Privacy: If you need to sketch some designs on a whiteboard, answer a phone, or have a quick collaboration session with other people visiting your workplace (or working near you), are there places available where you can do this? Are they easy to book?
• Community and Activities: You don’t have to be best friends with your work colleagues, but coworking is a great place to take extra work, forge connections that could lead to better opportunities, and do all the networking stuff I haven’t mastered yet. mid-30s. Also check if the coworking space offers any kind of social events, be it small workshops, after-work meetings, invited speakers, and the like. Enrich yourself; after all, you pay for it.
• Fees: Let’s say you want to send or receive a package because it’s easier (or safer) to do in your coworking space than in your sloppy apartment. Does it cost extra? Whether you’re looking for storage space, bike space, or grabbing coffee in a trendy little coworking café-bar, are you adding fees to an already expensive monthly rate? What if you need catering for a meeting? A little more complex A / V setup for a presentation?
• Where do you work: what kind of jobs does a particular coworking space offer? Are you stuck at one long table sharing the power of your surge protector with eight other people? Can you have your own semi-private, dedicated table? Personal Area? YOUR OWN FLOOR?
• Cuisine: If you’re good at cooking dinners, the kitchen is a must, even if you may have to establish dominance by killing the person who continues to drink your clearly labeled orange juice . And if you hate the smell of others’ smelly lunch, you might be better off finding a coworking space that doesn’t have a kitchen.

How do you make sure that the coworking space that you are going to pay a good amount for is absolutely perfect? Look for coworking spaces that give you some sort of sampling of the space before you sit down for a more expensive pass or monthly membership. You may be able to use this seat during the day for free, or even buy a discounted day pass. Be sure to try doing a holistic tour of the site, ideally during your normal work day (so you can get a feel for what work there really can be). Take out the laptop and check the connection . Attend an event or community meeting. Eat an apple.

How to have a good first day in coworking space

Once you’ve decided on a place to work together and are ready to get started, you still have a little something to plan for. Now that you are going to work in a shared space that is not your home, you need to make sure that you are fully equipped for everything you have to deal with during the day:

• Buy a backpack: Okay, you don’t have to buy a backpack, but make sure you have something great that you can use to transport your laptop and other devices to and from your new collaboration location. More importantly, make sure your bag has everything you need: power adapters (which use an extended power cord for charging, if available); Any security keys you might need to connect external storage, displays, or Ethernet cables to your laptop. favorite water bottle ; photos of your pets (if your workplace does notallow them to hang out ); charging cables for your devices; your favorite pair of noise canceling headphones ; etc.
• Consider boosting your Wi-Fi: You can invest in an external Wi-Fi adapter if your laptop’s wireless capabilities are less powerful than what your collaboration space offers. If your new workspace has AC1750 (3×3 wireless-ac) fast access points, but your laptop only supports the N400 (2×2 wireless-n), you may need a stronger external adapter, which can be annoying at times, so you don’t wait forever while your work files will be streamed (or your 4K YouTube streams while you take a break).
• Use a VPN: If your business doesn’t have a VPN to use, or you’re working for good, consider buying a great one . While we doubt your workspace is monitoring your wireless connection and is trying to steal your passwords and data, you have no reason to believe that your workspace is safer than your local coffee shop.
• Lock your laptop: Secure your laptop to your desk. No, really . And once you’ve done that, make sure you’re using a secure method of logging into your laptop – like fingerprint or face – and not just typing in the easily guessed password cat123. Consider setting up an app that takes snapshots from your webcam whenever someone tries to log into your laptop . Turn on any “my laptop is gone and I can use another device to lock, erase, or track it” features that are in your operating system, or install an app that lets you do this. Be friendly in your new workspace, but don’t trust anyone.
• Play in the Cloud: You’ve probably gotten used to working from the cloud if you’ve done your work remotely, but now just move into a collaboration space. If not, it’s time to start storing your files on Google this, Dropbox that, or wherever you prefer . Going from good old .docx to an online document (or worse, a spreadsheet) can be a little frustrating, but you’ll get used to it.
• Configure the apps you want before you need them: If you need to connect to video or audio conferencing, make sure you download whatever app your company uses before your first meeting (Zoom, Lifesize, Google Hangouts, WebEx, etc. Further). If your company uses Slack, download Slack and customize it as much as your workspace allows. Create different accounts for your work and personal life if you use the same laptop for both. If possible, install the remote application on your desktop at home in case you need to access anything on it from your new workspace. Install the beta version of GeForce Now if you want to play a little on your less powerful work laptop during your lunch break …

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