The moment I realized coworking spaces were draining my focus

For about 6 months I was working from busy coworking spaces in Chiang Mai every day. I thought the energy and networking was worth the noise and constant interruptions. Then last Tuesday I rented a quiet apartment with a simple desk for a week. By day three I had finished a project that had taken me two weeks in the shared space. Has anyone else found that the social buzz actually hurts their productivity?

2 comments

2 Comments

white.grant11d ago

Blew my whole productivity theory right out the water when I tried it. Thought I was one of those "I thrive on chaos" types but turns out I'm just a distracted mess. Quiet space and I'm suddenly a genius accountant who actually finishes their spreadsheets.

wendy20511d ago

@white.grant I read something from that Cal Newport guy about deep work and it basically said most people overestimate how well they focus in noisy environments. He had some study showing even background music drops performance on complex tasks by like 15 percent. Your spreadsheet experience matches that exactly.