#1 Collaboration

Collaboration is the topic of the first in a series of blog posts about what 'makes' a shared office space. We've been inspired by the book 'Working in the Unoffice' by Genevieve V DeGuzman (Author) and Andrew I Tang (Contributor). They've come up with the five things that make a coworking space a great place to work, so we've borrowed their themes as they are also five things we we love about Spaceworks. First up ... Collaboration.

Two businesses who work from Spaceworks shared office space are Cadence Works and Spiky Communications. The former a Sheffield based consultancy, specialising in writing winning tenders (and tutoring others to do the same) and the latter is a social media and creative marketing expert, passing on knowledge through Social Media Super Groups. Together they have collaborated in Spaceworks to form the Third Sector Cafe; a network for third sector organisations in Sheffield, meeting every third Thursday of the month.

By collaborating to form the Third Sector Cafe, Cadence and Spiky could combine their skills, expertise and contacts. Not only was the formation of the Cafe collaborative, but the way it is run is collaborative too. Each Cafe looks at a different topic relevant to the third sector and speakers work with (not for) the Third Sector Cafe to make each event engaging and informative for third sector participants. In addition, the TSC collaborates with outside organisations, using local business people to facilitate discussions. The wonderful I-Am-Auriel, Madame Zucchini & Organise Chaos have experience of facilitating and running workshops and coaching sessions, for their own businesses, and can bring those skills to Cafe meet ups too.

More recently, the Third Sector Cafe recently celebrated collaboration at their MADE Festival Fringe event in September: 'Philanthropy - what's in it for me?' At this event attendees from both the third sector and businesses in Sheffield discussed: do businesses only support charities in order to improve their image with their customers? And are charities only really interested in talking to businesses to get them to donate to their cause? The discussion explored the benefits of businesses and charities working collaboratively, with case study examples of such collaborations in Sheffield.

Get in touch with your stories of collaboration, or stop by Spaceworks to see if a shared office space could work for you.

Origami skills & cardboard desks

This quirky desk is from chairigami

Anyone any good at origami?

Harland Works has recycled 4938 litres of paper and cardboard in the last quarter, now we're thinking that we should have saved some of it! The next box we flatten is going to undergo a transformation - into a desk!

This plush looking thing to the left is a desk from chairigami, who have also successfully funded the production of a standing desk on Kickstarter this year.

What we like about this product is that it is made from something that you wouldn't necessarily think is strong enough to make sturdy furniture, and yet it is entirely functional because it is well designed and put together to withstand weight (see photo proof of this here). This makes an everyday material look really special, and we're always impressed when construction is a clever as slotting together, with no glue, tape, screws, staples, or hope holding everything together.

Lovely.

Back to school, back to work

Many Sheffield children are back at school this week! For parents who’ve been juggling business and kids all August, this can feel like a huge relief: at last, a chance to fit in some uninterrupted hours of work on their business ….  at least until 3.30 pm anyway.

If September has given you some time back and made you feel like starting a new project, or if the summer holidays have left you feeling that your business needs to see more of you, Spaceworks offers flexible and affordable workspace, available when you need it – so you can  make the best of the hours you have available in holiday and term time.

Get in touch hello@spaceworkssheffield.co.uk to have a look around and discuss what Spaceworks can offer you.

Surviving the summer holidays

Summer holidays are great fun, but how do you fit working life around them?

At Spaceworks we've gathered 3 tips from working parents with younger children to see what they choose to do to keep the work - life balance over summer.

1) Adjusting your working hours can work well. "It feels a bit funny changing from working 9am-5pm, but it is surprising how much work I can squeeze in after the kids have gone to bed." 

2) Many other parents are in the same situation over the summer, so working together can be really helpful. "When I have a meeting, I ask a friend to watch the kids for a couple of hours, knowing that I'll return the favour when they have an appointment they can't miss." 

3) Some activities will allow you to get a bit of ticking-over admin done. "If my children fancy watching a film, I can sit in the same room as them and just answer a few emails to keep the ball rolling." 

If you do need a desk for a day of work away from home, we have Day Passes for Spaceworks for £10. We hope you're having a lovely summer, and we'd love to hear your survival tips too! 

Podlife

Inflatable pod at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Photo from Exposed Magazine

We love shared workspace. It gives people a chance to bounce ideas around, share a tea break and even collaborate on a piece of work. But sometimes you just need that personal space to take a Skype call, have a discussion with a colleague, or have a meeting with a new client.

Spaceworks pops up in any unused space in Harland Works, but we love the idea of a workspace that literally pops up. From inflatable office-in-a-bag to swish garden pods there is a lot of pod-potential out there.

Pods are a good problem-solver. Heating a little pod in the winter is quicker than heating up a larger room or a whole house. And a smaller space is much easier and quicker to personalise (though you might have to leave out pinning things to the walls in the inflatable pods...)

If anybody out there has experience of working in (or with) pods, please get in touch and tell us what you think of them!

Working from home AND a shared office

Here at Spaceworks, we've been thinking about where people choose to work.

When someone says "I'm working from home." Do you imagine they will be having a lie in and catching up on last nights' tele? Getting to do conference calls in their pyjamas? With 15% more people going into self employment since the Credit Crunch in 2008, working from home is becoming an increasing trend.

Here at Spaceworks, we’ve met lots of people who work from home, running their own companies from the kitchen table or working as freelancers with specialist skills in their field. 

Laura Lashmar owns Spiky Communications and mixes working from home and in our shared office space. She likes the wider network of people that she gets to meet “I get space to get a second opinion, inspiration or have a laugh and as a result I find my days working in Spaceworks more productive than working from home.”

Working from home is a very flexible option, and allows you to fit work around your life rather than vice versa. But many Spaceworks members have mentioned that working from home all the time can feel isolated, and bouncing ideas around with the cat can feel less than effective…

We created Spaceworks with this in mind, we offer the flexibility of having a desk for a few hours or a few days a week, with easy-in, easy-out contracts written in plain English. You can have the flexibility of working at home and mix it with having Spaceworks colleagues, and the sociability of a shared office space, with rounds of tea and coffee (and biscuits).

If you want to see what our Spaceworks rooms are like, drop by Harland Works and have a look! Or try out our shared workspace for a half day (4 hours) for free during June 2014. 

5 things we’re doing that make us more productive

Spaceworks is a shared office space based in the vibrant and exciting John Street Works triangle off London Road. With the diverse range of businesses using our desk space we thought we’d share some of our experiences and ideas of how to be productive – from Spaceworks and beyond.

          Time sheets

We’ve been experimenting with using time sheets this last few weeks and wow what a difference it’s made. Particularly when you are working for yourself, it forces you to think about what you are spending your time doing and whether it’s the most cost effective use of your time. The down side is that you can focus on filling in the time sheets rather than using them to evaluate how you are using your time.

          Score 3/5

          Good work space

One of the reasons for setting up Spaceworks came from the experience of working at home with the distraction of the dishwasher, the kids, the shopping, people coming to the door, chickens escaping, the list goes on for all of us. Finding a good space to work is key to being productive. We’ve seen that a clean and clear space makes a huge difference to how productive we are. One of the added bonuses to shared workspace has been that when you are stressed and working towards a tight deadline, other people in Spaceworks will notice and offer to make you a drink – a small act but really appreciated when you’ve barely got time to breathe let alone put the kettle on.

           Score 5/5

          Switching the internet off

Sometimes this seems counterproductive – but all we can say is try it! If the internet is on, we find we get distracted by tweets and emails, so if you have a looming deadline for a piece of work, or you have set aside an hour to strategise, try disconnecting your laptop from the ‘net. We’ve found that limits distractions, enabling you to focus. What you don’t want to feel is stressed by this, if you are waiting for an important email then obviously this isn’t the idea for you!

           Score 4/5 

           Lists

We’re real fans of lists in Spaceworks. Actually, we are fans of ticking things off our lists. Crossing off that task so forcefully that you rip through the paper, or finishing an entire to-do list in a day; who doesn’t like a list?

          Score 5/5

           Having a break

Our favourite, having a break and a coffee. We’ve found it’s helpful to pause and enjoy a break – it’s helped to spark some great ideas, to keep our energy up and to make the day fun too. However, a time limit on breaks can also be helpful to not get too distracted and forget why you are there!

           Score 3/5

Those are our favourite ideas for being more productive; please get in touch if you want to know more about joining us in Spaceworks, the shared work space.