A friend of mine told me today that he just can’t work from home. He simply cannot do it. This guy enjoys his work, he likes his team, he’s great at what he does, and he feels a sense of responsibility to his employer. It made me wonder: What makes him incapable of working from home, when others have no problem at all? What is it that we remote workers have, that others don’t?
1. Discipline
You knew this was going to be first up, and it’s probably the single biggest factor in remote working success. Discipline isn’t just about staying focused when it’s a nice day outside and no one really knows what you’re doing. It’s also about keeping reasonable and appropriate working hours, and keeping commitments outside of work as well as within. Generally, I think of discipline as the thing that lets you hold up your end of the deal you made with your employer, as well as the one you made with yourself.
I tend to think of my time as being fairly compartmentalized: When it’s work time, I do work, and that’s pretty much all I do and think about. And though I do sometimes think about work outside designated hours, I never actually look at work-related stuff in my downtime. It’s a sort of knack I’ve developed. Being able to become absorbed by work can be very handy for the remote worker — so long as you can snap out of it at knock-off time. Read the rest of this entry »
The trouble with not working a 9-to-5 office job is that often you work more, sometimes much more, than your cube-dwelling counterparts. The risk you run with an always-connected, always-working lifestyle, of course, is of getting burned out. And once that happens, not only will you end up exhausted, but both your work and your personal life will suffer.
A List Apart recently published a great article by Scott Boms, “Burnout,” that examines the stress, exhaustion and illness often associated with web work. Burnout is not just stress, he notes, but is caused by an “imbalance in an individual’s personal goals, ideals, and needs as related to their job.” So how can you regain that balance? Boms outlines several steps you can take, including: Read the rest of this entry »
I first met Linda Broughton — head of NTI Leeds, part of Leeds Met University — in May 2007, at a meeting on the use of open-source software in the public sector where I planted the seed of an idea to develop a coworking community in Leeds in Northern England.
Within a few months, Linda had launched the “met:space” coworking community at Old Broadcasting House, which has now become the hub for most of the city’s web and new media community (also see my previous interview with OBH resident, James Ward).
I spoke with Linda about the development of OBH and her thoughts on coworking.
Imran: Tell us a little about the background of OBH. What were the motivations for coworking in Leeds?
Linda: It started out as an idea space for our graduates to move on to. We recognized that many of the students’ final year projects had the potential to become commercial businesses, so we wanted to develop a space that could support them in the early days. Read the rest of this entry »
Alex Hillman is the co-founder of Independents Hall (colloquially known as IndyHall) a “coworking space and community” in Philadelphia. IndyHall is home to designers, developers, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, small business owners, telecommuters, marketers, videographers and game developers, amongst other industries.
I spoke with Alex about his motivations for bootstrapping IndyHall, the experience of running the community, his hopes for the future and advice for others. Incredibly, Alex recorded an extraordinary and engaging 30 minutes of video for us, telling the fascinating story of IndyHall’s history and future.
We edited together some highlights on the background of IndyHall, along with plans for the future of Philadelphia’s coworking community as a single video here for readers who want a brief introduction to the IndyHall story.
You can find the full set of questions, answered as short video clips, over on YouTube:
Incidentally, the relaunch of the IndyHall web site site just a few days ago is noteworthy in its approach to cohering and aggregating the community of coworkers in the city, providing a platform and a voice for their agenda.
If you’re interested in the experiences of coworking community founders, you should also check out our earlier interview with Stephanie Booth, founder of Lausanne’s Eclau coworking community.
Like Stephanie, Alex’s insights and experiences are invaluable. Do share your own experiences of coworking or founding a coworking community in the comments below.
James Ward is a member of Leeds’ Old Broadcasting House (OBH) coworking community in Northern England, working as freelance “digital coach.” I spoke with James on his thoughts and experiences over the last few months as one of the most active evangelists of his coworking community.
Imran: How did you first encounter coworking as a concept and what drew you to it?
James: I heard about an event for freelancers, GoingSolo, being held at OBH in Leeds. I had started working freelance just a few months earlier but from past experience working on my own I had learned the importance of getting out and making connections with other people. Working on your own every day in the spare bedroom can get pretty lonely and soul-destroying.
For me, attending this event was one of those serendipitous moments in life that lead to changes more profound and beneficial than I could have imagined. First off, it was my introduction to a network of professional peers all talking about the same challenges and issues as I recognize: managing finances, clients, confidence. The exchange of ideas was exhilarating. I came away from the day on an absolute high…and I had also discovered coworking. Read the rest of this entry »
Eclau (pronounced eck-lo) is a coworking space in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded by Stephanie Booth. Booth spoke with me about her motivation for starting Eclau, her experiences running it and her future plans, and offer up some tips for anyone thinking of starting a coworking space.
WWD: Tell us a little about the background for Eclau — what were the motivations for coworking in Lausanne?
Booth: I’d heard about coworking, and visited Citizen Space in San Francisco. I thought it would be lovely to have a coworking space in Lausanne, but at the time, I was quite happy working from home. A couple of other people in the area were interested, but I was in “follower” mode — not “leader” [mode].
In autumn 2007, a friend of mine approached me. He had some free space in one of his shops that he wanted to transform into a community office for freelancers and other local innovators, and wanted to know if I could take care of it. I told him about coworking and he said, “That’s it!”
Laura reveals why screencasting app Jing (previously covered here on WWD) is her favorite. Strictly speaking, Jing is not a web app, but it’s a great choice if you’re looking for easy-to-use, inexpensive screencasting software.
In an effort to better understand the inner workings of a coworking business, I spoke with Eva Schweber, co-owner of CubeSpace in Portland, Ore. Schweber is CubeSpace’s Chief Cat Herder, policy wonk and fount of obscure nonprofit information. She brings more than 15 years of collaborative facilitation and organizational management experience to her numerous paid and volunteer gigs. Her professional experience runs the gamut from managing an artisan goat dairy (she was a state-certified pasteurizer) to facilitating a strategic planning effort by an international environmental consortium. Her esoteric background has trained her well for running a coworking community.
In her spare time, Schweber serves on the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Cabinet and chairs the Small Business Development Workgroup of the City of Portland’s Small Business Advisory Council. She also sits on the City Club of Portland’s Research Board and in June 2007 was appointed by Governor Ted Kulongowski to serve on Oregon’s Commission for Voluntary Action and Service. Her blog is her attempt to reconcile her ever-growing interest in small business with her wonkish tendencies.
WWD: Why did you decide to open a coworking space in Portland?
A friend of mine told me today that he just can’t work from home. He simply cannot do it. This guy enjoys his work, he likes his team, he’s great at what he does, and he feels a sense of responsibility to his employer. It made me wonder: What makes him incapable of working from home, when others have no problem at all? What is it that we remote workers have, that others don’t?
Eclau
