Thursday, January 6, 2011

work from home: blessing or curse?

Early this year I spent several months working from home, doing odd translation and writing jobs. Let me tell you one thing: I suck at working from home. There's just too many distractions, too many things I'd rather be doing rather than working. So i decided to go out to the library or any given cafes or anywhere I can use the internet connection from. But I ended up paying more for food and drink than I should.

I know a lot of freelancers out there share my dilemma. Working from home is not as fun as it sounds. I need a separation between my work life and my home life, and there was no such thing when I worked from home.

I was sipping my daily dose of A Cup of Jo when I stumbled upon her post in which she was looking for a shared work space. In New York, like-minded people created independent workspaces which gives you the workspace and the freedom you need to work.

One of them is Paragraph, a workplace for writers. It looks quite peaceful and comfortable, exactly the kind of place writers need. No distractions..... hmm.... really? Well that entirely depends on whether you're the kind of person who likes to chat up the person next to you on the bus or as antisocial as Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.


Another group (I don't know what these are, are they a company? A sort of cooperative? So I just decided to call them group, for want of a better word) offering a similar service is In Good Company. It's not aimed solely for writers, but it is dedicated for women entrepreneurs.

Bottomline, human interaction is essential to any work life. It is much better to have co-workers rather than having nobody to gossip with!

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