Is there value in more than one home office space?
I’m no stranger to working from my home office space with plenty of pre-pandemic experience. In those days, I had a schedule of taking my laptop to a few choice spots, such as my local Panera and some other locations. Saturday writing day before the pandemic meant going to Caboose Commons — a very cool place — to write my TechTarget articles.
My old rule was never to write a piece of content sitting in one place. I’d write much of an article in my home office then seek a change of scenery to edit the work. Other times, I’d do the process in reverse. The difference in scenery would feel like a change in energy. It would help me see or think of things that I didn’t before
My home office space has served me well since I bought this house. Living in a three-level townhouse means I placed my home office in a loft, which is the top floor of my house. It’s over a back bedroom and has dormer windows that give me a view out the front of my house.
A combination of pandemic stress and other factors made it feel like the walls were closing in on me when I sat in my office-eventually, I set up another desk down in my dining room. Working in a new space under the same roof seemed unnecessary at first. As the pandemic plodded on, I came to enjoy the new workspace on my main floor.
The value in more than one home office space for one person seems unnecessary. For me, it came down to the different outside light coming in from my sliding glass door. Granted, the addition of a standing desk in the dining area of my small townhouse did overtake my dining area.
I remain optimistic that this thing we call a pandemic will burn itself out after Omicron. At the least, the numbers will drop again in my area to where I feel OK with getting out in the population with my laptop to get some writing done. Until then, I’ll keep switching it up in the house.
Will Kelly is a product marketer, and writer focused on DevOps and the cloud. His technology interests include enterprise mobility, collaboration tools, and remote work. He has written for TechTarget, Opensource.com, InfoQ, and others. Follow him on Twitter: @willkelly.
Originally published at http://willkelly.blog on January 30, 2022.
