Did you read the title?
That’s right, I got an office! A space for me to go to work everyday!
Let me tell you about how this came about and my decision to put money towards an office space. The beginning of this month is when I got back to Vancouver from my trip to Ontario. I was there for over 2 months for some work, weddings, visiting family, and other events. While in Ontario, I had a lot of time to work on my projects, and also lots of time to reflect on my own self. It was the longest I had been away from Vancouver since I moved out here. Moving to Vancouver brought on a completely different living arrangement, habits schedules, along with different work then what I was used to in Toronto.
In my 7 years living in Toronto, I was working for a studio where I would go to work, then come home and work in my apartment where I lived alone. I had a limited number of relationships due to my work hours, and near the end, I had a long-distance relationship. Basically, no one was around to really distract me when I came home and wanted to work.
I am a workaholic, and working 12-14 hour days at the studio, followed by working at home for another 6 hours was not uncommon. I would rarely take breaks for meals and typically just ate at my computer. I lived by my own schedule, although at the time, I hardly realized it was a schedule.
Moving to Vancouver, I moved in with my partner and my schedule drastically changed. I had things to help her with, more household chores, and different types of couple events now that we were no longer long distance.
During this trip to Ontario, I was staying at my parents, where I spent much more time to myself being able to concentrate and work. This made me realize how much more productive I was in a situation where I was able to shut myself away and concentrate on what I was doing.
So, upon returning to Vancouver, I decided it was the right time to put some money into finding myself somewhere to work. Somewhere that wasn’t searching for a coffee shop (which I would often do) and could go every day to get some good solid, uninterrupted, time to concentrate on work.
That’s where I find myself now, I found a great little co-working space that is a 15-minute walk from my house. There are 7 other people in this space, which consists of 2 sound studios for post audio, 2 private offices which are used by a video editor and a 2-man production team. Then there are 2 dedicated desks, one of which is now my “office”. The space has a bathroom, a kitchenette, and a common area with couches, plants, and lots of natural light.
I feel like this is the beginning of a new chapter for me. I am focusing in on my plans for my business, have been having more video editing and web design clients, and now I have a space to work daily. I’ll let you know how it goes since this is still only my second week here.
Until next time, always be creating.
Alex
I AM ANAK 