The 5 Deadly Sins That Will Zap Productivity in Coworking Spaces

You are not a work-from-home type of person, so you have secured a spot in a great coworking space. Before you start working in earnest, check out our list of the five deadly sins that will zap your coworking space productivity.

Selling

Selling? How can selling injure your coworking effectiveness? Businesses need to sell products to survive, so peddling your items is an absolute necessity. Yes, but not at work. Not to your coworkers. Not to just anyone that will listen at your coworking space. Mostly everyone is hustling like you are in your shared space, and people just don’t like to be bothered by what we call sales harassment. 

Think of the constant calls you receive from student loan fixers, auto warranty companies, and people claiming to be Google ranking specialists. Do you want to be put into that category by others in your coworking space? Remember, if by the eighth week of your coworking tenure you have not figured out who the most annoying person in the space is, it’s probably you!

Smelly Food

You don’t really want to be the smelly food guy, do you? That slightly glazed and old-looking sushi that you just pop in the microwave to rejuvenate has not made you sick yet, but believe us, your coworkers are not going to enjoy that unique fishy smell as it wafts through space. Think of others before you cook and/or bring weird food into the workspace because you’ll spend a lot of valuable time saying, “I’m sorry,” if you don’t.

Odd Hours

If you want to be productive, get a schedule, keep the schedule, and be consistent. Businesses have regular hours for a reason, and while coworking does give you an amazing amount of flexibility, don’t take advantage of it by just working here or there. For example, if you need to finish a business plan on a certain day, stick to it! 

We’re not saying you have to work from 9:00 to 5:00 every day and take your lunch at the exact same time but showing up sporadically is not going to help you get anything done. You’re the boss of course, but you need to set your own rules and follow them.

Bad Connectivity

After you have been in business for a while, you’ll naturally become a little cynical, and a little healthy skepticism is not entirely a bad thing. One very important thing to believe only after you have seen it is your coworking space’s bandwidth capability. 

Now, we certainly understand that excellent connectivity should be a primary concern for coworking space providers. Great spaces will offer both super-fast direct and wireless connections that are exceedingly reliable. That said, make sure you check out the internet service before you sign a coworking space lease. Make sure to also ask who the internet provider is and research internet outages. 

Outages, as you know, are death to business, so you need to work in a place where the connectivity is strong and the signal rarely if ever goes down. We can’t stress too many times how important it is for you to properly vet this.

Distractions

You need to respect everyone’s privacy whether you are sitting at a table with others, or if you are alone in your own office. Don’t look at other workers’ screens as you pass by and avoid the temptation to hang out and talk for hours on end as your work piles up and remains undone. 

Sure, Friday happy hours can be a nice time for socializing with your coworkers, but keep it at that. Those that violate this guideline will, again, be labeled as “that annoying person.”

Bonus Tip

And one more thing—leave your personal drama at your home or apartment. Whether you rent a tiny place in Minneapolis or live in a massive penthouse in New York City, no one wants to hear that the reason you are yawning and rubbing your eyes constantly is because you have had to stay up with a sick pet all night or about that awesome party you through at your place the night before. 

Maybe you get can your desired sympathy once in a while, but if you make a habit of seeking condolences from your coworkers, you run the risk of been avoided at all costs.

Coworking is very popular and it can work for you if you remember to treat your coworking opportunity with respect and remember that you still have to be disciplined in order to get anything accomplished. 

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