Randomly in Redhill
Via a series of twists I've ended up in a co-working space in Redhill today. Someone told me about something they were doing and I said no I was in Surrey and they said, oh when I was in Surrey I hung out with some interesting people, here's their website. And I looked and it turned out they have a free co-working day every month and it just happened to be today and I just happen to be playing around with doing things that are slightly more adventurous than wandering into Guildford or sitting at my desk, so here I am.
I remember a few things about these places now:
They're quiet - everyone's focused on their thing. They are set up to be a place where people can meet other people and make connections, but they rarely do that, or else they do it very very slowly over many weeks of an incidental word or two by the kettle.
They're mostly populated by men.
Like many networking-like things, people come to see what they can get rather than what they can give. And then there aren't many opportunities to give anything anyway because it's so quiet, nobody's asking for anything and nobody's able to offer.
It's a different style of working than I'm used to at home. There's just a little bit more pressure to get on and do stuff, at least to look productive. And I guess it's a bit like Contexts in Getting Things Done. There are certain things that are suited to being done in this kind of atmosphere, at a white desk in an office chair with strange small talk occasionally punctuating the silence.
We'll see.
I joined the University Library (£30 a year for alumni) for that purpose. The maths and natural sciences sections are almost always deserted (except when it's an open day and there's a gaggle of excited sixth-formers wandering through) and anyone who is there is working in a very focused quiet way (unlike the humanities section which is a bit of a bear pit, very noisy, smells of fries and has empty pizza boxes left every where). It is perfect for getting things done, when I have that sort of thing to do, often in a third of the time it would take me working from home. I like to be away before 4pm when the buses and roads start to get busy and that galvanises me like you can't imagine :) For networking, I hang around places like the Phoenix, where we had SteemCampUK. They have wifi and you can have your laptop out as if you are working and in no time at all, someone will stop by to say hello and the laptop gets moved out of the way. There are plans for a new co-working space - the big benefit of that would be access to a quality printer, which I do occasionally need ... look forward to the further adventures ...
ooh, that's a really good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'm a Surrey alumnus so I'll check out what they offer in Guildford. Thanks Shani!
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