co-working, “getting out of the house,” and the importance of a regular schedule

 

On Friday, I got to work at 10 am, unpacked my laptop at one of the many desks, and got to work writing while sipping my tea.  I took my noon nap on the desk, ate lunch, and left at 4 pm, having accomplished a lot. 

Sounds like an ordinary day at the office, right? 

Except it wasn’t: I’m a self-employed writer, and I’ve been working from home and in cafes for years.  I don’t have an office to work from, so where was I?

Enter betahaus, a co-working space here in Berlin that my husband read about in a magazine this past week. 

For 10 Euros for one time, 6 Euros per time if you come 12 times, and so on, you get the most important benefits of an office: regular hours (it’s only open 9-6, Mon- Fri), a desk, WLAN, drinks (and food), a printer (etc.), and other human beings also doing work.  It’s relatively quiet (no music like at cafes), but not so silent you feel lonely. 

Oh, and not to be overlooked: it’s not at home!

I was psyched (I’d never heard of this concept before), and having been there once, I still am. 

Because I think this just may be the solution to two different problems I have: a) I’m a writer and have trouble keeping a regular schedule and not getting distracted and procrastinating (some people like being their own boss.  I think it’s a bit tough.) and b.) I’m a Narcoleptic who sometimes needs that regular schedule and the pressure of having to go to work or being at work to keep me out of bed. 

This is why I previously worked at cafés, but the past few months I find I just can’t get much done there anymore; the noise is distracting and you feel a bit out of place working in a place where normally people just sit and eat. 

Plus, people bother you if you try to take a nap (unless you are in Starbucks, where you could dance on a table and employees wouldn’t notice :-)).

It’s far too easy to take a nap, oversleep, or take too long of a nap when your comfy bed is next door and no one is going to see you doing it. 

But it’s more than that: when you’re at the office you’re in work mode – and personally, I realize now that I really need that work mode, otherwise I will end up working almost every day of the week, my free time blurred with my working time.

If I’m going to be weird and take a nap with my head on the desk or lying on the leather couch (I didn’t have the nerve to try that one yet though, but there was one there…), I’m going to think twice about taking a nap when I’m feeling a bit tired, and if I do it, I will keep it short. 

Napping on a desk just isn’t that comfy (yes, even using a jacket/sweater).

How did I come across this idea?  Actually, it was my husband’s idea: he read the article (in German) and suggested I try it.  (Well, it was more like, “tomorrow you are going to go there and try it,” lol, but I couldn’t really argue because it was such an awesome sounding idea.  He knows I’ve been struggling with being self-employed and working from home.)

Which brings me to a few lessons I learned about myself that might be helpful for other Narcoleptics: 

1. If I want to do work, I need a work oriented space, and I need to get into “work mode” (i.e. I’m here to work, so get started (as opposed to I’m here to eat lunch and work)).  I used to think that “just getting out of the apartment” was helpful as far as getting things done and staying alert were concerned, but I don’t think this is very true anymore.  Although I’m not going to sleep while taking a walk, the benefits of “just going somewhere,” at least for me, are generally short lived.  (Sure, I might go to a café to work, but lately I find that after an hour or so I find it hard to get much done and I really just want to leave.)  For me, if I want to get work done I really need more than just being somewhere else: I need a space that is all about working, a space that puts me in work mode.  Co-working is good for this.  I suppose a library might also work.  Somewhere that is centered around working and not around eating/drinking coffee.
2. I need a regular schedule, and a regular routine, both for my productivity and for keeping alert (and for keeping the sleep and nap schedule I need for that).  The biggest insight for me, though, was that I need to try something new to make this happen.  As the saying goes, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, then you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”  I think this is an important lesson when it comes to simple lifestyle advice like this one: if you’ve already been trying to do something and haven’t been able to, maybe you need to do something different this time instead of thinking it’s all a matter of using more willpower to do the same thing (again).  Years ago, my neurologist told me it’s very important for Narcoleptics to keep a regular schedule (and not just a sleep schedule, but a life schedule).  This seemed like good advice, but the devil is in the implementation…  It’s harder to make these sorts of changes than one might imagine.
3. Perhaps this is also a lesson on giving advice: repeating the same old “you should get out of the house/ take a walk/get out of bed and then you’ll feel better/get more done” advice to a Narcoleptic (or anyone for that matter) probably isn’t that helpful if they’ve heard it a million times before.  However well meaning, it may even be seen as criticism, or not being supportive/not ‘understanding’. Suggesting a new strategy or something different – in combination with being supportive – might be much more effective, as with my husband’s suggesting I try something new that I hadn’t heard of.     

A few more words on co-working before I’m done.  If you too have trouble with some of the issues I’ve mentioned here, you might still be able to benefit from co-working even if you stay at home or don’t work. 

There is no rule that you have to do “work” here; you could really do anything you want.  You could do crafts, read a book, surf the internet, and many other things other than working on a laptop.  You could make phone calls, write thank you notes, make to do lists… the possibilities are endless.  And of course, there is no requirement that you come every day of the week, or even very often. 

Also, as far as cost is concerned, if you are using co-working for work purposes, you might be able to write it off on your taxes as a work cost (you can here in Germany).  There may also be places near you that don’t charge if you don’t come regularly, such as this one I found in San Francisco.  Finally, as I mentioned before, you might also be able to use this strategy in other places, such as libraries.

What do you think about co-working?  Do you find you have similar issues to the ones I’ve described, and if so, how do you deal with them?