Coworking spaces are marketed as vibrant places that promote productivity and creativity among professionals and improve career growth by encouraging business connections and ideas exchange. But beyond this inspiring description, it’s important to understand that the atmosphere at your workspace and your productivity are determined by your actions and attitude. If you are not result-driven and don’t use the coworking space resources wisely, your experience of working in an open-plan office will turn into a failure.
Here are 4 tips to become more productive in a coworking space
1. Know your goal
When you join a coworking space, it’s important to hold a clear vision of what your goal is. Try to understand what are your expectations from your new workspace and environment. Know how your end result looks like. If you keep all these considerations in mind, you will be less likely to pay attention to distractions and get involved in pointless chit-chat and fun activities while having a major project on the table.
2. Participate in networking events
One of the goals of a coworking space is to encourage positive interpersonal and business connections between members. That’s why try to find room in your busy schedule for attending community events. Your participation in guest speakers conferences, workshops, and parties will give you the opportunity to know your coworkers closer, share experiences and expand your horizons by getting new ideas from other bright minds.
3. Create boundaries when needed
The vibrant, cosy and friendly atmosphere of a coworking space can steal your attention from important job tasks, making you engage in meaningless small talk and joke-telling with your workmates who are a desk apart. If you really want to achieve career growth, you have to draw a separation line between work time and leisure time.
If it’s a major and difficult project, consider withdrawing to an individual office that almost every coworking space in Singapore has. If it’s an open-plan office, create virtual boundaries with other workers by trying to focus on nothing else than your tasks. You can buy a pair of headphones with noise-cancelling features to allow you to improve your concentration and detach from what’s happening around you.
4. Take breaks
While some workers prefer to engage in fun conversations with their neighbours to avoid doing tasks, others do the opposite – they get fully immersed in their projects, working hours without interruption. The truth is you have to find a balance between work and rest to be able to reach optimal productivity. Working without a break is not a good strategy at all, because you overburden your brain, making it inefficient, slow, and short of ideas.
Always consider giving yourself a 10-minute break at 1-hour intervals to allow your brain to get a respite from complex office tasks. These breaks can range from standing up from a chair and stretching out or joining the breakout room and enjoying an invigorating drink while talking to your workmates, exchanging ideas, and why not playing some foosball or pool.