To be honest, some people are more productive while working at home. If you can focus on work only in quite and calm surroundings, then coworking is not a great option for you…

For the rest of us, here are reasons why coworking is a great place to work.

Rich environment and Flow

You definitely know what is flow, right?

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. — Wikipedia

Basically, it’s the best state of mind for working and learning. And guess what? The rich environment of coworking centers is one of the triggers of flow. Despite the noise and other people, lots of us can achieve flow in such environments much easier than at home.

A similar effect can be observed in cafes and other public places. Some people prefer to work there. Still, coworking is a special place designed for work. There will be fewer distractions and unexpected things than at a cafe.

If you want to learn more about flow, some time ago I wrote an article “How can freelancers and entrepreneurs stay productive at work?”.

Office as a Service

I perceive coworking as a continuation of “Thing as a Service” model: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and finally, Office as a Service (let’s call it OaaS).

It’s quite logical that OaaS model has similar pros and cons to other “as a Service” models:

• Cost saving: coworkings are cheaper than offices in business centers (just for small teams).
• Scalability: it’s easy to add more people to your team while working at a coworking.
• Maintenance: you don’t have to think about cleaning, food supply, etc.

But as for SaaS, when your team grows OaaS becomes more expensive than alternatives. And don’t forget about security: there will be lots of unknown people around.

My current working place

Here are some photos from the coworking where I currently work:

Give it a try!

I’m not saying that coworking is the only solution for productive work or beating procrastination. Still, I noticed that I’m twice as productive at coworking as working at home (and nearly 1.5x more, comparing to an ordinary office).

That’s why I think that every independent specialist should at least once try it!