Location, Location, Location

Many remote employees do not care about the place they are working at. It can be a separate room at home, office space, rented apartment, or even co-working. But are some of these places better than the others?

Comfort

Comfort is the first factor every person considers as a requirement for the workspace. No matter how many tasks or how much effort is needed, the workplace has to be comfortable, with no exceptions!

We need to remember that conform to different people may mean completely different things. For instance, somebody may like low temperature, quietness, and proximity to the fridge, while the other can work from the sea beach and be happy. Comfort is a very subjective thing; that is why there are no strict rules here. However, most remote workers prefer quiet places over the noisy offices (good headphones can compensate that) and daylight over artificial light.

Every remotely working person should ask himself what makes his workspace comfortable and apply as much of the preferences as possible.

Concentration

Concentration is the thing people care about less than a comfort, but it has a much stronger influence on the quality of work and overall performance. Think about it — you may either work alone in a quiet room or work in a noisy co-working area without headphones. It is easy to predict which location will produce better results.

Let us split work into two types of activities — ones which require a high level of concentration and another one which does not require that. Location for high concentration work has to have a minimum amount of distractions — visual, acoustic, physical, etc. It can be a private room, a small office, or any quite enough place. Open space can be added here as long as it matches these criteria.

Location for low concentration work has significantly lower requirements. It can be any space where you can physically perform required activities without interruption. Co-working, open space, or even public transport may suit this type of work. Sometimes disadvantages of these places can be partially compensated (e.g., with good headphones or proper backlight), but do not expect them to be as efficient as locations from the first group.

The Best Choice

So, now looking at the results you can tell what is the most comfortable and what is the least convenient location. Then you can evaluate the level of concentration needed for their work (high, low, or something in between). Knowing these two things, you can choose the most suitable location that leads to good results and is comfortable enough simultaneously.

However, this article covers only two parameters that affect the selection of locations for remote workers. There are many other parameters — distance to the place, minimum level of communication (introverts and extraverts have different needs), ecological state of the area, and so on. You need to take all these parameters into account to understand whether each location is good or bad for the specific type of work. Only then you can find the most suitable place that can satisfy most of your needs and lead to great results.