When I started this entrepreneur thing, I was lucky to have room to create my office. Setting side space that was “work” helped me establish important work/life boundaries. But even though I have the office, you’d been hard pressed to find me working there. I simply don’t like it. Like lots of other entrepreneurs and freelancers, I prefer working from coffee shops. Why? Because coffee shops have things that my apartment does not: Snacks, endless coffee, stable WiFi and people to watch or talk to. It’s like camp for nerds!

Over time, I’ve picked up some tricks of the trade when it comes to increasing my productivity as a remote worker. Here are some of my preferred habits. If you have any of your own, I’d love you forever if you’d share them. I’m always trying to find ways to do more.

Bring headphones

This is a no-brainer as I don’t know many people who don’t prefer to work to music. I 100 percent believe that my set list for the day determines my productivity so I choose it accordingly based on what I have to accomplish. That’s right; I just admitted that I match my playlist to my To Do list. [Please tell me you do this, too]. I also match my socks to my mood.

If you’re someone who DOESN’T like working to music, then you’ll definitely want to bring headphones to cancel out the music playing in the coffee shop. For this, I recommend using SimplyNoise. You can pick which kind of background noise you want, if you want it oscillating and set your own volume. It’s saved me on multiple occasions. The wonders of the Internet.

Curb chatterboxes

The best part of coworking/working from coffee shops is surrounding yourself with other people. Too much time alone and you start to forget you’re part of the human race. Or to, you know, shower and put on pants. Forcing yourself out and around others relieves this. However, just because you want to be around people doesn’t meant you want to talk to people. You are working, after all. For me, dealing with coworking chatterboxes depends on who they are:

• A chatterbox you brought with you: Gently remind them that it’s “work time”. If they haven’t even taken their laptop out, remind them to do so. The good thing about chatterboxes you brought with you is that you can often tell them to shut it without someone getting too offended.
• A chatterbox that works there: If the person who won’t stop talking to you actually WORKS at the place you are inhabiting you may have to make small talk for awhile. You are, in fact, on their turf and they’re being nice enough not to kick you out for hogging tables. Chat for a few, learn a bit about them, and then kindly remind them you better get back to work. You’ll chat again during your next refill.
• A chatterbox at the next table: This is another time when those headphones come in handy. Put them in your ears and start bopping. It doesn’t matter if there’s music playing or not. Pretend there is. And that you are very, very consumed with it. Or stare at your computer and look stressed, like you’re trying to figure out a really complicated puzzle. Like, for instance, how Lindsay Lohan went from Disney to jail in record time.

Be selective about your space

I am very easily distracted. Like, horribly so. That means I have to be really picky about where I sit in a coffee shop. My rules look something like this:

• Don’t sit near the door, or face it. [temperature chances, high traffic]
• Don’t sit near the register [too noisy, high traffic]
• Avoid power outlets [They get crowded. I have two 9 hour batteries so I don’t need the outlet. You might.]
• No couches [carpal tunnel isn’t fun]
• Windows are nice
• So are corners

There’s more, but I think you get the point. Depending on how you work best (and availability), you’ll want to try and find a place that mimics your needs. My favorite place to work is on the stage area of the café two blocks from my apartment. It’s raised, away from all foot traffic, and there’s a big window to gaze out of. It’s one of my favorite places in the whole world.

Get around…but have a steady

I have a rotating list of coffee shops that I spend my time working at. Switching it up allows me to pretend I’m being social and getting out, but it also means that I’m not putting the full strain of my coworking on any one shop, which I feel is important. I know that laptoppers can sometimes be considered a burden, so I try to make it as light as I can for the places I inhabit. After all, I work there because I like them. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.

Though I rotate, there is one designated “home base” shop for me. This means people looking for me know where to find me and makes it easier to set up meetings when I have to. It gives me one public hole in the wall and others where I can hide out when I don’t want to be found.

Make friends with the owners/workers

As a coworker, you want to take time to befriend the people who work at the places you inhabit. You’re on their turf and it’s a sign of respect and good manners for you to get to know them. As horribly introverted as I am, I make a strong effort to establish a rapport with the owners of the places I visit most. Everyone benefits from friendliness and it just may help them to view you as less of a burden. It’s also means they’ll check up on you every so often to see if you need anything. Nothing’s better than a coffee refill you didn’t have to get up to ask for.

Eat & drink often

Ordering a coffee and then sitting at a table for six hours without eating or drinking anything else signals that you’re a jerk. I do my best to refill drinks or snacks every two hours, even I don’t intend to actually consume it. Arguably not the best decision for my bank account, but I want to show my support for businesses I like, frequent and raid WIFI from. It also gives me an excuse to get up and go make small talk with employees, which helps build that rapport thing again.

Also, don’t forget to tip.

Know when to go

Most coffee shops have a certain time of day when they start to get busy. For some it’s the morning, others the afternoon. Know this schedule ahead of time and avoid going during peak hours. It’s a sign of respect to not hog tables and WIFI when “real” customers are there and it also ensures you won’t punch someone in the face when they make a snide comment calling you a “squatter” or growl that you’re taking up too much room. I’m really lucky that my favorite coffee shop (where I’m currently writing this) is always empty during work hours. I get to work there as long as I want without the guilt trip, feeling like I’m helping the business bring in some extra dollars.

Don’t be “that guy”

Just a few things:

• If your coffee shop turns of WIFI during certain hours of the day to prevent coworkers from hogging tables, don’t show up with your MIFI card and think it’s going to be okay.
• Don’t hold large meetings in someone else’s space.
• Don’t use the establishment as your own personal daycare center, for your kids or your animals.
• Don’t take phone calls inside.
• Don’t have Skype conferences inside.
• Don’t take the biggest table possible and then scatter all your stuff

Your mother taught you basic etiquette and how to be a respectful person, keep it in mind.

Those are some of my rules and tips for working out of local coffee shops or other establishments. What rules do you live by?

With businesses currently downsizing significantly, many smart, capable people have been suddenly released from the preplanned, functionally discrete environment of corporate life. They have been unplugged from the balance sheet and turned out into the world, with their only possession being their highly valuable intellectual assets.

To try to make a living, many of these folks become “consultants” of one kind or another. They turn to their home computer, probably get their own smartphone and start making phone calls. But they do so without the support of IT, HR, accounting, and the water cooler gang. These folks come from a world where technology and work habits are still a very complex system of restrictions to one of near-absolute freedom. These folks can now work when and how they please, and they own the results – good or bad – in their entirety.

These folks become Digital Nomads.

The problem is, nobody really offers training for becoming an effective, successful Digital Nomad. Perhaps we should. If I were to design the course it might look something like this:

101 – Introduction To Being A Digital Nomad
Synopsis: We explore the dual aspects of being “digital” and being a “nomad” in today’s workforce. Students will develop self-sufficiency in remembering passwords and will demonstrate understanding of both portability and completeness by packing a lunch for another student and delivering a critique of the job done for them.
Required: A new laptop bag that is heavy and too small

102 – Philosophy and Physiology Of The Café
Synopsis: Once the haunts of artistic introverts and beardy intellectuals, café’s have become the new cubicle for today’s motivated capitalists. Students will explore their individual tolerances for being stuck alone in their home offices and will acquire skills in identifying which café type is best-suited to their requirements.
Required: Bluetooth headset and a baseball cap

201 – “Wow! I Just Got My First Mobile Phone Bill!”
Synopsis: Students will work in teams developing CPR skills to better respond to the first cellphone bill with data plan they receive as a consultant. Additional techniques include calming exercises prior to calling to switch plans and set-up of Skype, iChat and GoogleTalk.
Required: USB headset and a single earplug.

202 – “What’s My Fax Number? Uhhh…”
Synopsis: After discovering that a home fax machine is practically worthless if they’re working at Starbucks, students develop mastery of the following: Applying a digital copy of their signatures to documents and converting them to PDFs; Receiving, editing, and resending faxes from their laptops without paper; Using off-the-shelf software to make business cards.
Required: Digital camera, Comic Sans typeface

301 – Conference Call Intensive Study
Synopsis: The conference call by cellphone is a nuanced event, balancing quality of signal, minimization of background noise and distractions, the ability to take notes, and delivering the perception of total engagement. By completion of this course students will be able to moderate a call with a foreign party while driving a bus full of Brownie scouts on the Taconic Parkway.
Required: Diprivan (Propofil)

302 – Creating Your Online Persona
Synopsis: Without the umbrella of your company, you are nobody. Now is the chance to create the “you” that you have always wanted to be online. Students work in teams to develop home pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts for themselves, and provide peer review of each other’s Facebook pages with particular emphasis on the Photos section.
Required: Updated headshot your mother would like

Like all things in life, we learn by doing. Most of my peers on the Digital Nomads blog have slogged through the ins and outs of being a digital nomad, and have acquired impressive skills and deep wisdom in how to function efficiently and effectively in the office-free world. My fear is the “apprenticeship” method of becoming a Digital Nomad cannot support this sudden torrent of newbies restarting their lives outside the cubicle.

Shouldn’t we do something about it?

The challenges of freelancing don’t lie in the daily commute or finding the right outfit to wear to work. Instead we have to continually think of ways to market ourselves and drum up business. This isn’t always easy. Not only do we have to stay on top of our own game, but we have to consider all of the other freelancers who are vying for the same opportunities. The good news is that in 2010, there are plenty of options. Finding them is easy thanks to social media.

We all know social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are fun networking and socializing platforms, but they, along with other social media tools, can also be used to enhance your job search and help you to land more clients. While younger freelancers are eager to embrace social media, many “old schoolers” confess to “not getting it” or its importance.

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of social media, you never know what you might find beyond the regular job boards.

Social Media Tools for Freelancers

Twitter
Everyone you meet on Twitter has the potential to become a client. If they’re not hiring freelancers, they may know people who are.

The power of Twitter lies in the ability to build relationships and create conversations with followers and the people who you follow. The people who you meet on Twitter:

• Share job opportunities: Some Twitterers enjoy sharing what they feel to be good freelance opportunities. Others actually hook up their Twitter stream to freelance job search sites and blogs. Find the Tweeps who share your same interests and goals and share gigs together.
• Share useful links: The best thing about Twitter is how there are always opportunities to learn. Every day yields links to blog pots, news items, videos and cool things to do. How does this benefit freelancers? Because there’s always the opportunity to learn and become inspired by the world around us. Twitter is the world around us.
• Share your links: Once you have built relationships with your followers, share links to your blog posts, portfolios and more. Using Twitter also sends traffic to your blogs and website and help to build your name and reputation. Be careful not to become a spammer. Tweeting nothing but links is a turn off for most.
• Offer support: Your fellow freelancers are very supportive and offer tips and advice, especially if you have questions. You’ll also find collaborators, conversationalists and fans.
• Offer camaraderie: Working from home can be a lonely existence. Twitter’s water cooler effect helps to ease the solitude of a day spent alone in the home office.

Facebook
Facebook holds the same networking and socializing benefits as Twitter plus more. Facebook offers the ability to build your own social network through their groups and fan pages. Many of these groups share jobs and opportunities. Look beyond the obvious “freelancing” groups and get nichey with it. For example, if you’re a blogger and who specializes in weddings, look beyond blogging for wedding groups and networks to join. Meet wedding planners and caterers. Meet musicians, brides and grooms. Once they know you, some of them are bound to hire you for their projects.

Blogs
Many now offer job lists and links to available opportunities. The beauty of blogs lies in the comments, however, but blogs are more than job search tools. The benefits of blogs as networking venues abound. When you participate regularly in the discussion topics, your name becomes more familiar to people. Potential clients who appreciate your point of view will remember your name and contact you for their projects.

Other Options

• Online forums: The communities share leads to jobs and job search advice.
• Linked In: In addition to Linked In’s job boards, you’ll find an online resume service and many groups for sharing job leads, links and tips. Join the networks of people with whom you wish to build relationships and have former clients offer references and recommendations.
• Blellow: A microblogging site for freelancers, Blellow also offers support groups and job leads.
• Twitter Job Search: A search engine featuring all the jobs posted on Twitter, Twitter Job Search allows you to search a variety of categories.

Knowing Who to Follow

So how do you know who to hang out with on the various social networks and blogs? To find folks to follow (and vice versa) simply search your interests. If you’re a web designer, by all means, visit the various design groups but also branch out to the niches that interest you most. Align yourself with the people who:

• Hire freelancers
• Know people who hire freelancers
• Outsource to other freelancers
• Share the same ideas and interests
• Have to potential to collaborate on ideas
• Inspire you

Be Careful What You Put Out There

Keep in mind that while using the social networks to find work, potential clients will be using the social networks to check on freelancers. Put your best foot forward. Build a professional profile and act appropriately so they feel as if can trust you with their brand. If you tend to get a little wild, you may want to consider a separate personal profile for fun.

It’s All About Relationships

Using social media is all about building relationships. Everyone you meet, both online and off, have the ability to become a client. When you talk with the same people every day, you build up trust. Trust leads to business. If you build it….they will come.

By Deb Ng

An interesting workstation situation at this Greek design firm. They have a series of shared desks, not quite big table desking as they only seem two wide, but they have a big banquet seat on one side. It provides an interesting alternative way to sit at your desk, and the high back makes for a space divider as well. Very cool idea, pulling from cafes, or taverns, and injecting it into the workplace. A description:

theSwitch workspace is located at Psirri, a “busy”, multi-cultural area in the historical center of Athens. Based on the agency’s philosophy on teamwork and the creation of user-friendly workspaces, the design and construction of the space creates a series of mini-spaces which serve for different functionalities: meeting room, mini-meeting room, lounge area, kitchen and bar- all fit in 120sq.m. Wide windows around the workstations allow for “communication” of the interior with the neighborhood and a view to Acropolis from the office’s front window. Transparency, simplicity and cleanness, with an attention to details and ergonomics characterize the space, which has been described as an urban working loft, where you constantly meet small “design surprises”.

To me this is much more compelling an idea than anything out of Neocon this year. More photos at theSwitch at ThisAintNoDisco

by  workalicious

A very good interview with Tony Bacigalupo, the owner/founder of New Work City, a New York City CoWorking community. I think the questions are good, and Tony’s answers really capture the main ideas of CoWorking in a clear way. Some choice quotes:

I’ve found that when people say they want to work from home, they really mean they want to be able to choose where they work and in a circumstance that works best for them. What we’re moving towards, in terms of the workplace, is to be in a position where each person can choose where they work best.

This captures for me why design is important in coworking, even though CoWorking guru’s first concern is community. This is the classic client of design services unable to state their problem without framing in terms of a solution. I don’t want to work for somebody – my problem is I want to work from home. Is the issue that you want to work from home, or that you want to be independent? Some may be perfectly happy to work at home, but many will prefer a CoWorking environment that mixes the best of the social aspects of the workplace with independence.

A lot of coworking spaces are all over the world. Most of them have been started by those who do not have entrepreneurial ambitions from the coworking space, but more social ambitions that they want to cultivate in this community.

This is an important part of CoWorking that I think many who seek to start a space should tune into. A CoWorking space as a business entity will have social goals – social profit as its motivation, more so than monetary profit. Sure, every space needs to be in the black, save capital for improvements etc. But ultimately the purpose is to build community, and make social profits that everybody can share if they choose too. I think this is why an Office Suites type of business immediately does not feel like CoWorking – you can not obscure the difference in priorities.

I want to bring this back to my interest in design and CoWorking. The message I take away from this is that CoWorking is not an end in itself, but a tool for independents to use in helping them get their work done. Its about the design of the workplace – not the physical place, but the social place. Designing the best social tool to get your work done. If you can accept that idea, and I think anybody that believes in CoWorking will, then it is not such a leap to acknowledge that the design of the physical CoWorking environment can also make a significant contribution to the success of that tool.

Many of these spaces started out in coffee shops or cafes, and there is a sentiment that the community is what mattered. Desks and chairs don’t matter – we got our work done at cafe tables before. But you are really selling your community short if you discount this entire dimension of your most important work tool. You no more want to bring the cafe tables to your new space than you want to put up the typical corporate cubicles. The answer is not something that can be plucked from the sky. You have to observe and recognize the nature of the social interaction in your CoWorking community and think about how to facilitate the most beneficial conditions and behaviors. I know the can-do attitude of most people that have started spaces and the ease with which you can fill a space with commodity furniture from Ikea. But I’m telling you that you will be better served ultimately by an insightful designer trained in how to make spaces that respond to the activities of their users, and a broad knowledge of the wide range of tools – meaning furniture and accessories – avaialble in the market.

End of pitch to Design Your CoWorking!

by Gregory La Vardera

An interesting opinion piece by Susan E. Reed writing for Global Post describes the Unilever corporation’s efforts to eliminate the cubicle from their workplaces:

When executives at Unilever noticed that much of their office space was either unused or unoccupied as workers traveled, they took away 36 percent of their employees’ personal space. The company’s offices in Leatherhead, England, now feature “agile” space: a largely open office where workers rearrange themselves throughout the day depending upon their tasks. They can collaborate with one another while sitting at a table, take a break in a curvy “vitality” space or concentrate alone in a small individual work area.

Its an interesting example of a large organization questioning what kind of environment will make their people most productive, and at the same time enable them to eliminate wasteful and expensive real estate.

Death of the Cubicle at Global Post

Workolicious original

While this may be a good first step for anybody who’s been working in isolation, you quickly run into some problems doing this that make it a somewhat incomplete solution to the problem. There’s really nothing that comfortable about hanging out in one or more coffee shops all day long, buying obligatory coffees and snacks, using their power outlets under the glare of the manager, not being welcome for quite so long, flakey network connections, and finally, do you really want to leave that $2000 computer alone by itself in Cafe Grumpy while you go to the bathroom? Do you want to take it in there with you, for that matter?

A better solution will be to join us a UNION when we open in a few short months.

You will pay low monthly membership fees to use spaces — it’s a lot cheaper than renting commercial office space. You will have ergonomic chairs, get Wifi, conference rooms, printers, landline phones….and much more, including a coffee/wine bar to use at your leisure. You’ll have really fantastic social group of thinkers, artists, programmers, writers, you name it. Distractions will be low, productivity is high, you will have people to bounce ideas off of who’ll become you friends.

If you are currently “Nomad-ing” we encourage you to sign up to receive more information on our rapidly approaching opening date and check us out.

Feel free to chime in below in the comments to keep the flow of dialog moving. After leaving the discussion open for the month, we will be compiling some of the responses into a post on the topic at hand, so be sure to keep checking in on the talk as things develop.

What Gets Your Creative Butt In Gear?

Alright everybody, the torch has been passed…Discuss!