What is a workspace and what makes it ideal?
For the self-motivated, the workspace is an environment where you find yourself with access to a smart device and high speed internet while you have the drive, focus and creativity to make sh!t happen. Think airports, coffee shops, bathroom stalls and couches. Home and away. Wherever you go, there you are in your portable workspace, planning your work and working your plan.
If workspace can be just about anywhere, then perhaps it is more a headspace than physical location bound by four walls and a door dedicated for work. Work occupies a chunk of mind space. If you’re in your head a bit, as I am, you may find yourself thinking through an email reply or a solution for a project while in transit, in the shower, and even in bed. This can be stressful.
For the sake of sanity and productivity, you may need to clear room for restful headspace through planned social recreation, vacation and/or meditation. The ideal workspace is an uncluttered headspace, aware and present.
During the workday I work as director of operations at a mobile marketing startup in Midtown. In my free time, I pitch, plan and produce Negotiation Prowess workshops. My work travels with me.
The only criteria for a workshop venue is that people can mock negotiate, or talk to each other. I’ve held workshops at a poolside cabana in Miami for Bullish Conference, classrooms on Barnard campus, corporate offices and most recently at the Mission of Malta to the UN.
Mutual win negotiation principles for ambitious women, under the auspices of mustachioed European royalty.
Your negotiating style denotes class, refinement, and leadership potential.
That said, I really enjoy writing proposals and articles from home, where I work either sitting at the dining table or standing by the kitchen island. There’s ample sunlight, endless refills of tea and pretty things of my choice.
Have MacBook Air, will work. Have flowers, will smile.
The wise owl safeguards my books on personal development, feminism, and money.
Natural sunlight energizes the mind and stimulates optimism and confidence.
When I have my own office for Negotiation Prowess, I will work at a big wooden desk large enough to hold dinner settings for six. The space will be decorated in bold, vibrant colors. There will be fresh cut flowers. I will rely on outsourced cleaning and organization service to keep the space uncluttered and welcoming. There will, of course, be a door with a lock that delineates workspace from non-workspace. That would be ideal.
So in conclusion, work is ubiquitous. At least for now, home space doubles as workspace, and the perk of working everywhere and at anytime carries with it the responsibility to safeguard headspace. With that, I’m off to sit in silence basking in the sunlight.
