Why Working In A Coworking Environment Can Benefit Your General Mental Wellbeing.
This year I did my work experience at The Generator Hub, it’s a lovely little coworking environment that has two offices based in Exeter. I have had a lovely time and it has really benefited me as a person to see how this type of space works, I have been left with invaluable skills and I don’t regret picking this as my placement one bit.
Now before I continue I should explain what coworking spaces are. Co working spaces are office areas that rent out individual spaces for businesses that need a space to work and don’t want to work from home. They often offer a mix of plans and different spaces, with varying prices, to suit the needs of each individual and their company. You’re often mixed in with lots of other people and companies from all walks of life.
Perhaps i’m starting backwards but maybe I should talk about the benefits of working from home before I come to my conclusion. In a privately owned office, shop or in your own home you have more personal space and you can do more with that space. In your own home or in a privately owned office you can decorate and have everything strewn about whichever way you choose, go nuts! Furthermore I suppose being in an environment that you’re used to could be beneficial to your focus and your will to work. There could be less awkwardness if you’re a naturally introverted person. Working from home as a small business gives you full control over what you do and when you do it, doesn’t that sound perfect?
Well maybe it actually isn’t.
It’s probably of no surprise to anyone to find out that working by yourself in an isolated environment for long periods of time isn’t healthy, it’s almost like the older generation telling us youngsters to get off of our phones and go out to enjoy the fresh air… but nobody says the same to adults stuck in isolation, tap tapping away at their computer all day long.
In my opinion, cowork spaces are an affordable, revolutionary way of changing the way small businesses work. As a social person I may be a little biased with my opinion on this situation but I genuinely believe that it could be beneficial. Co work spaces such as The Generator offer a professional working environment but with the added benefit of a friendly community to keep you sane throughout a strenuous working day.
Now I spent some of my time at the generator talking to the people that work there, I found lots of different people and lots of different personalities, I really loved talking and getting to know peoples opinions and views on how coworking benefitted their life. One person’s opinion really resonated with what I was trying to say. He told me about how he worked from home for years before he came to the generator. We had a quick chat about how much easier it is to focus in an environment that isnt your home, it can increase your productivity dramatically when you aren’t getting distracted by domestic possibilities such as ‘the laundry that needs doing’ or even just your phone. His wife noticed a huge increase in his general contentedness and he told me was happy more often, according to his wife he used to be grumpy. He disagreed… but there you go. Coworking really benefited his life at home as well as his business.
Its widely known that mental health is now one of the biggest costs to the NHS, more so now than before as it’s less of a taboo subject. Depression, anxiety and many other mental illnesses. cost the UK an estimated £77 billion a year. Experts predict that by 2020 depression will be second only to heart disease. So why don’t we do more to keep ourselves healthy? Why do we give ourselves excess risk to a serious condition just because it’s ‘easier’ to keep our businesses at home? Coworking spaces provide the social interaction and integration that is vital to keeping your mental health at a high, it has been proven that to help with depression you need to keep your relationships of any kind going and working in a space with others can easily provide that.
