Why Mental Health Is The Number 1 Reason To Consider Coworking

Published on March 4, 2019 - By Guest Contributor

This article was written by Kayleigh Alexandra from Micro Startups

• There are various benefits to using a coworking space: productivity, networking, and accessibility.
• Coworking spaces can also be beneficial for a person’s mental and physical health. 
• By helping people separate life and work, coworking spaces can help reduce stress and burnout. 

There are many benefits to joining a coworking space, coworking makes users more productive, it allows for networking opportunities and it is cost-effective. However, there’s one reason for joining a coworking space that doesn’t get enough credit: its positive impact on mental health.

Coworking helps you to separate work and life

Whether you’re a freelancer or home-run business owner, if you work remotely, you’re probably guilty of blending up work and life until you’re unable to separate the two.

It’s easy enough to do if you work from home; after all, your space work and life space becomes one and the same. This, consequently, is likely to impact your mental state and your routine. You find yourself cleaning the house or washing clothes mid-morning, taking business calls during lunch hours, and answering emails right before bedtime.

This impacts your mental health, you’re, quite literally, taking all of your work and stress home with you, which doesn’t really give you any time to switch off. Eventually, you might feel like your home is no longer a place where you can relax and unwind, and instead it becomes a place that you associate with stress and burnout.

Coworking spaces can help you keep a healthy line between work and life. In fact, 60% of coworkers report being more relaxed at home since they began coworking.

Using a coworking space gives you a calming, flexible environment in which you can focus on work , and work alone. By placing yourself in a driven, concentrated atmosphere and by being in an environment where others are working, you can improve your sense of drive and your productivity levels.

A coworking community helps you feel connected

As a remote worker, it’s all too easy to feel disconnected from the rest of the world when you’re locked away at home or sitting alone at a coffee shop.  

Becoming part of a coworking space gives you a sense of belonging and community. Feeling connected — having social interaction and being surrounded by other humans — really helps battle loneliness, isolation and poor mental health.

Suggested reading: “How One Member Found Mental Peace through Coworking”

Approximately half of independent workers cite loneliness and “feeling like an outsider” as the main drawback of working remotely. The feeling of isolation and lack of connection to a team culture can be disheartening.

Coworking tackles the unspoken loneliness of the gig economy, by providing a space where remote workers can talk and simply be around other people.  

Coworking offers collaboration and networking opportunities

Coworking is a great opportunity to meet new people — potentially future collaborators and partners — in a safe, vibrant working environment.

Coworking spaces draw like-minded people to them and you will likely find yourself surrounded  by inspiring individuals. Coworking enables and facilitates meaningful and authentic connects between people. These could be professional or personal nature. The point is, coworking brings people together.

Moreover, most coworking spaces tend to host a variety of events on a weekly or monthly basis. These are the perfect occasion for you to reach out to people and find collaboration opportunities.

Coworking promotes productivity

Statistics show that coworking boosts productivity — 64% of coworkers said they were better able to complete tasks on time and 68% said they were able to focus more.

This doesn’t only benefit your business, but also makes you happier and more content with the state of your job. There is a relationship between job satisfaction and mental health, so it makes sense that you should doing everything you can to increase your job satisfaction and productivity levels, not only for financial purposes, but to positively impact your mental wellbeing.

Productivity can be a serious issue for those working remotely, especially when faced with distractions at home or public spaces like coffee shops.  

By providing an designated space for focused work, coworking spaces promote productivity and provide remote workers the chance to focus and create a daily routine that helps achieve and maintain work-life balance.