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Should You Rent Office Space or Work from Home?

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Office window
(Alesia Kazantceva, Unsplash)

31 July 2018. More people than ever are working from home. In fact, it’s thought that within the next ten years one-third of us will be working from home. While some of these people are still working as employees, working from home some of the time instead of going into the office, a vast amount are self-employed, working as freelancers, or running their own home business.

Working from home offers you fantastic flexibility, a chance to work around your other commitments in comfort. It can even save money on commuting, work clothes and expensive lunches out of the office. It will certainly reduce your stress levels. But, as a home worker, you don’t have to actually work at home. Many freelancers, business owners and solopreneurs are choosing to hire an office space, or to work in coworking spaces at least some of the time. Here are some of the things that you should ask yourself if you are torn between working at home or hiring a workspace.

Do you have children?

This is both a reason to hire an office and a reason not to, depending on your situation. Many people leave work to set up on their own because it’s the only way that they can work with the flexibility that they need. If you’ve got kids at home, and no childcare, you’ll need to spend most of your time working from home.

However, working with kids around might be much more difficult than you’d expected. They need your attention, they distract you, and they can make it hard to focus. Click here to see some spaces that you could hire, just for a few hours a week to give you more time to focus. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can get done in a short time when you are alone.

Office desk
(Nathan Riley, Unsplash)

Do you struggle to focus?

Working from home isn’t for everyone. When we go into it, it seems ideal. You can work whenever you want, even in your pajamas with daytime TV on in the background if it suits. Then, reality hits. Some people do this fine. They can tune out distractions and motivate themselves to work to deadlines. Others, procrastinate. They put work off, they seek out distractions, and they struggle to hold focus without someone assigning them tasks, setting deadlines and telling them what to do.

Hiring an office can help. It gives you designating work time and space. It also gives you a financial push. You are paying for the office. You certainly don’t want to waste your money by not doing enough to justify the expense.

Do you struggle to switch off?

Equally, some home workers struggle to stop. They thought home working would give them the perfect home life balance but find any kind of balance completely vanishes. They work all day, every day. They never stop working or worrying about work, and it’s affecting their home life and relationships.

An office can help here too. It gives you a precise definition between work time and home time. When you leave the office, you are done for the day. Free to enjoy some time off.

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