Three years in a coworking space made me realize i hate open floor plans

Back in 2021 I moved to a shared office in Austin thinking it would boost my productivity but after 3 years of constant noise and awkward small talk i feel more drained than when i worked from my tiny apartment. Last week i finally rented a private room for a month and got more done in 5 days than i did in the previous 2 months combined. Has anyone else found that coworking spaces are actually worse for focusing than just staying home?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.joel1mo ago

Random hallway conversations" only work if you actually have those, not when youre dodging eye contact with ten people on your way to the bathroom. I got a private desk at a library instead and it was the same kind of quiet zone I needed, no forced networking or awkward breakfast chatter. Some of us just need silence to actually think, and thats okay - coworking spaces are basically paid distractions with better coffee.

norag661mo ago

Maybe it's actually the culture of forced networking that kills focus.

williamhill1mo ago

Disagree completely. Some of my best ideas came from random hallway conversations at conferences I almost skipped. Networking forces you to articulate what you're working on in simple terms, which sharpens your own thinking. Without those structured breaks to connect with people, you end up in your own echo chamber and miss obvious blind spots in your work. The real killer of focus is sitting alone with your own assumptions, not talking to someone who asks a smart question you weren't expecting. That friction is actually valuable if you lean into it instead of resenting it.