10 Tips to Make Coworking Work for You
Evolve Workplace is a coworking space that can work for you. But packing up your stuff and making a new space your office can take some getting used to. There are some great benefits to embracing a nomadic work life, including the many nearby amenities here in West St. Paul.
10 Tips to Maximize Your Coworking Experience
We’ve got a few tips to help you make the most of coworking:
1. Community Connection
One of the major benefits of coworking is you’re not alone. There’s the bustle of the hustle happening all around you. Take advantage of that build in community for interaction and networking. Connect with others to share ideas, converse, and even get lunch.
2. Go Digital
Coworking can break you away from the traditional office and offer more flexibility in your physical space. But you should also have more flexibility in your digital space. By moving your work to the cloud, you can avoid being chained to a specific computer. Save your files to the cloud, put your calendar online, use cloud services. Not only can you switch easily between devices, but a crashed harddrive won’t be nearly as catastrophic.
3. Meeting Space
Grabbing an open desk is a great way to do coworking, but sometimes you need a private space for a meeting. Evolve has plenty of meeting room options, whether you need a small conference room or something bigger.
4. Be Flexible
Coworking is all about flexibility, right? So try different workspaces. Don’t settle for the first desk you try. Move around the room to change your perspective. Try different set ups. Find the space that works best for you.
5. Collaboration
One of the great things about coworking is the accidental collaboration that can happen when random people work next to each other. Cross-pollination can happen as ideas are shared and new opportunities come to light. Be open to the possibilities.
6. Take a Break
Productive work is well and good, but sometimes the best solutions come when you take a break and let the ideas percolate. You may have seen the new pedestrian bridge across the street—go take a quick walk and recharge. (There are plenty of nearby options for a walk or bike ride.)
7. Headphones
Networking and interacting with your fellow coworkers is all well and good, but sometimes you need to get work done. A good pair of noise canceling headphones is ideal to help you block out the distractions and focus.
8. Printing & Shipping
Not everything is digital these days. Sometimes you need that tangible copy, and we’ve got a printing and shipping center to help. We’ve got all the office supplies you need, plus a generous printing allowance and access to fancy tools like the paper cutter and binding machine.
9. Coworking Bag
This is less important if you’re renting a private office, but if you’re using open desk for coworking, then it’s vital you have a bag with everything you need. There are the office essentials—laptop, chargers, mouse, headphones, pen, notebook, etc. But there are other items that might make work easier—water bottle, afternoon snack, spare business cards, USB drive, aspirin, sweater for when the AC is a bit much, etc.
10. Clean Up
Part of making coworking work is being a good neighbor. That means cleaning up after yourself. When you’re done for the day, make sure you’ve gathered all your stuff. If you’ve used a common area, be sure to leave it as you found it. If you had a snack or meal, make sure you throw everything away and clean up any mess. Your coworkers will appreciate it.
Bonus Tip: Ask Questions
We said coworking is about collaboration, and that includes collaborating with us. If you’ve got questions, ask. If you’re not sure how something works, ask. If you’ve got a suggestion, let us know. We want Evolve Workplace to work for you, so reach out if you need anything.