Not Co-Working Could Be Your Biggest Career Mistake

The title might seem a bit dramatic to those who aren't co-working converts - you might not know what you're missing if you're still stuck in a traditional office set-up, or still working from home. I once relished the "freedom" I had when I worked from home, just as so many do (read: free to sleep until 1 pm, spend hours on Pinterest looking at wedding dresses, and wearing PJs until dinner time). Little did I know that my work environment was seriously messing with my fledgling business, and thank goodness I stumbled upon co-working when I did! My clients went from 2 to 7 companies in my first month and a half here at CO Work'n, not just from my "freedom" being taken away, but for many other reasons you may not have considered - I know I didn't. If you're still trapped in the stagnancy of a home office and have watched your business numbers stay the same or even decrease, read on, it might just change your career!

Freedom is certainly great, but you may have picked up on my sarcastic tone already. The fact is, when left to my own devices I am anything but focused. I found within a couple of days that just the act of going into the office began to have a huge impact on my work output as well as my ability to be distracted - I began having tunnel vision when I focused on clients. Not to mention, the effect of being around other people who are all working on their own projects is quite impressive, the opposite of my previously held belief that other people would just further disrupt my workflow.

Don't just take it from me, countless others are raving about the benefits of co-working on productivity: Business.com published an excellent article about the matter entitled "Coworking: 74% of Coworkers are More Productive", an impressive number taken from a worldwide study conducted by Deskmag and Deskwanted. The article touts the curbing effect the work style has on distractions, but also goes on to discuss some other important findings in the study: 74% of coworkers are more productive,86% have a larger business network,93% have a bigger social network, over two thirds feel more creative and collaborate more on projects, a third reported an increase in income.

Here's the Business.com chart of the numbers:

Those are some really hefty numbers, and they aren't the only ones talking about the serious perks of other people, both Entrepreneur and Harvard Business Review have published excellent articles that quote scientific evidence backing up what so quickly made a convert of myself along with countless others: co-working just makes good business sense, period.

Still skeptical? Or are you a convert too? We want to hear about why!