I’ve worked at home for near enough 7 years now. I did have a brief time working in my own rented office, for around a year. And it was great! But, with the lease ending a month before the due date of my first daughter, it made sense to go back to working from home.
There are some big advantages to home working. For someone like me, who doesn’t employ and instead outsources, and who is out training a lot inhouse at businesses or at training venues, it wouldn’t make a great deal of sense to rent an office. I would barely be in it! Particularly as I take a couple of days off most weeks to spend time with my 1 year old and 3 year old.
But home working has its disadvantages too. For a start, there’s working from your living space. For me, it can be hard to jump from getting the girls ready for nursery and pre-school, straight in to work mode. I luckily have a downstairs office space, but the chores are never far away! I often plan a few ‘quiet weeks’ to catch up on office stuff in amidst all the training. But I find I quickly get cabin fever, stuck in the house all day and night. And then there’s the difficulty in switching off at the end of the working day. There’s no ‘home time’ as such.
So, when Regus got in touch to offer me some working space for the day, I was more than happy to give it a go! I picked a day on one of those catch up weeks, and it meant I could look forward to a day of catching up with all my office tasks, away from the home workspace. I went to their Fountain Street location in Manchester City Centre. They kindly showed me round, and it really is a great space! There are meeting rooms of various sizes and one that residents in the building can have use of for free for up to two hours by just putting their name down on the schedule. There’s also the business lounge for Regus gold card members, which includes computers and space to bring your own laptop too. This felt like a really creative space, and was really bright and colourful.
Then there are the offices. I worked from a 4th floor office for the day. It was really comfortable and, happily, lovely and warm too, as the November chill at just set in! I plugged the cable provided in to my laptop and was straight on the internet and ready to work! I definitely got more done away from my home office. There were fewer distractions, and I felt a bit more in ‘work mode’ if you know what I mean!
I love that Regus offer flexible options when it comes to using their workspaces. You can lease your own space for just you or your team too, for a minimum of one month. Or you can choose a part time 5 or 10 day package, which would be great for me at times when I really need to knuckle down and crack on with a project (like the book I’m writing at the moment!). Or you can pay as you go! And just pay for the day. Then there is the Regus gold card, giving you the opportunity to work in any Regus business lounge throughout the world!
Another big perk for me was definitely being able to nip to the shops at lunchtime! My ‘lunch break’ at home usually consists of about 15 minutes to wolf something down and maybe stick a load of washing on. It was great to pop in the shops for my mother-in-law’s birthday present, and to pick up some sushi for lunch too.
I really enjoyed my day and I would definitely recommend other home workers to look at the options Regus give you. I’m sure you’ll notice the difference in your productivity levels working elsewhere. And Regus is a great productive creative space to do that! You can find out more about Regus and their flexible working solutions here.
Thanks to Regus for inviting me along for the day! All opinions are my own.
