This is now my 9th month this year of paying to be in a coworking space, and I still love it.

If I rewind a couple of years ago, covid did some pretty crazy things to us all. It brought out our best side when it came to cooking or learning a new craft, and then brought out our worst side when it came to cutting our own hair or attempting to understand the complexities of baking sourdough bread from scratch!

Nevertheless, one large and (mostly) positive impact that covid had, was normalising work-from-home arrangements for many. I remember when we first went into lockdown and I was so excited about being able to work from home. I carried that excitement with me for almost two complete years, but then, without really realising it, working from home every day of the week turned into a stagnant routine.

I was actually quite slow to see the connection between how I’d feel mentally when working from home all week vs. choosing to go into the office for a couple of days. I found that when I’d go into the office twice, or even just once a week, would give me so much more additional energy and motivation.

It was a hard shift as I was so comfortable with my WFH routine that I didn’t see a need to change it up, but I’m ever so glad I did. The more I went to the office, the more productive, motivated and happy I found I was. And it was funny, as I would even describe this sensation to some of the team, and they would know exactly what I was talking about.

Where I’m trying to go with this is that it took me quite a while to realise that I’m most productive when I have variety in my routine (work or personal life). When strictly referring to my work routine, this meant having a combination of work from home and work from the office.

What does this have to do with coworking spaces?

Knowing my previous experiences with just working from home, I knew that if I was to leave my full-time job and focus on building a startup that I would need to have a location to go to most days where I could show up and get the job done. Using the coworking space, WeWork, I was able to maintain this variety in my week and have someone else to go to (instead of just resorting to cafes and annoying the owners by sitting on a glass of water with butter on toast). In a typical week, I’ll usually attend four days (which is more than I would attend the office for my full-time job!).

And what about the costs?

Budgeting for a coworking space when you’re not receiving a stable income can feel like a bit of an unnecessary expense. I’ve always tried to look beyond this though, as I find that paying to show up at WeWork has far greater benefits than if I were to just save that $330/month expense and work from home instead.

There’s another very powerful thing that happens when you pay for a service. Similar to an expensive gym membership or lessons in music or language. When you pay and don’t show up, the consequences hit hard as it’s an expensive waste of money. There is this immediate sense of responsibility that helps carve out the path to forming that new habit or a new routine. Therefore, I feel that the opportunity cost of me NOT going to WeWork (or an alternative coworking space) is far greater than the membership fee.

How do the benefits look?

I can’t speak for all coworking spaces, but WeWork has provided me with a setting where I have access to be part of a community that’s abundant with entrepreneurs, small business owners as well as interesting and well-established companies. The mix of members means that I can interact and be around others who are living and breathing exactly what I aspire to be doing. Although I haven’t nailed the networking side of things just yet, it is on my to-do list!

With the networking part covered, there’s also a matter of community activities that the amazing staff put on. This can be anything from TimTam-Tuesdays, end-of-month drinks, pizza lunches, platters of fresh fruit to even salsa classes. A couple of weeks ago the company celebrated ‘Member Gratitude Week’, and the entire week was dedicated to making members feel special. My favourite activity was the free 5-minute massages and they had also put on an extremely tasty breakfast.

(WeWork Member Gratitude Week free 5-minute massages)

(WeWork Member Gratitude Week free breakfast)

I also like that with my general access pass, I can enter any WeWork around the world. Last time I checked there were over 300 locations across almost every continent! And the great thing is that I’m on a month-to-month contract, so if I ever need to stop attending for whatever reason, I can just cancel and start again when I’m ready to go.

Are there any downsides?

I know I’ve focused quite heavily on all the positive sides to coworking, but there are a couple of points that I’d consider to be ‘downsides’. Speaking strictly about WeWork, their general access pass (which is what I have), is a hot desking option. This means you don’t have a dedicated spot to go to each day, so if you’re not in early enough and have a favourite spot, someone else could very well claim it.

The other thing about WeWork is that in the general working spaces, they don’t have comfortable office chairs. As a matter of fact, they’re not even office chairs. They’re almost what you’d expect to find in the food market section at Ikea. At certain locations though, they do have what is referred to as an ‘overflow’ section for general access guests. And this can look like a 6-person private office with desks and comfy chairs to work out of. I’m sure a lot of people know about these spaces that attend WeWork, but I’m still the only person using the overflow room around 95% of the time. I’m on my own that often that surrounding offices think I’m renting out a 6-person private office to use alone!

(my 6-person private – technically shared – office)

It’s been a fun journey of exploring coworking spaces as opposed to working from home or finding cafes to work out of. I find that the concept of having somewhere to travel to in order to complete my work helps me to define my goals and execute on them within that space. Although I spend most nights working away on other aspects of the startup from home, at least I’m able to attend an alternative location during the day.