Space: The Interim Frontier!

I'll get back to the Redux-learnings posts in a day or so, but since I was able to incorporate faster than expected, I was able to move in a few days earlier and I just thought I'd show everyone the new digs.   I'm over in the U-district about 4 blocks from Audri's preschool, so I can take her en route. It should work out great.

You'll notice it's above ground. I was pretty insistent upon that.  Everything else was negotiable, but it's all working out fantastic.  The folks I'm subletting from (and co-working with) are very nice and easy going.  They're letting me use their kitchen, conference rooms, anything I need, but I'm off in a quiet corner all by myself.  I actually chose a cube over an office so I didn't waste a lot of time decorating and bringing in extra crap I don't need to get work done, and I chose this particular cube so I could throw up a couple whiteboards on the wall and pin up comps.  It came furnished and it took me all of 90 minutes to get moved in including putting up the whiteboards.

At my last job, I had a nice office overlooking Elliott Bay, and I filled it with photos of family and framed art, had a sofa, etc.  It was a nice place to come to every day.  And yet I wasn't very happy for the last year and a half I worked there, not-so-coincidentally about the same time I moved into that office

Now,  I'm thrilled to be in this cube, with a fabulous view of this building's crap twin.  I don't think I'll be looking up much anyway, there's a lot to get done.

14 Weeks Redux Lesson 2: Working from home just doesn't work.

At least for me. Being near the kids more is nice, but they have no concept of “working hours” or "really important", so they just bug me constantly and there's really only so many ways you can tell them to go away and leave you the f#$% alone before they start to take it personally. Then there's the procrastination factor of seeing so many things to do around the house, plus helping with errands and such. And the temptation to take a nap and make up the time later always looms large. Now with the school year ending this week, I HAVE to get out of the house or Fruhla is dead.

Working in coffee shops is hit and miss because one day you may find yourself in flow, then the next day two obnoxious moms sit next to you and loudly bemoan the fact they can’t find gluten-free cheerios and that they are now trying luke-warm yoga and sooo done with Zumba and try as they might, they can’t find 4 yr old Carson a decent life coach and blah, blah, blah.

Coworking is actually a pretty cool idea, and I’ve used The Branch in Maple Leaf, but packing up everything you'll need every day (including a kb and mouse) is a bit of a pain, and you can't leave stuff on whiteboards, pin up your comps, etc, because that space isn’t yours 24 x7 and you still have the threat of realtors and salespeople and others that work on the phone constantly.

New Plan: July 1st, I’m moving into a sublet space.
I was lucky enough to (a) find a 6 week retainer consulting gig and (b) find a business that has a whole 2nd floor they aren't using, and will let me rent just one small area for $175/mo (+ liability insurance) and go month to month and grow into more space as I need it. That should fill my Retriever-like need to be near people, but they’ll mostly leave me alone, and it's a professional, furnished space, where the tone is set for being productive. I even chose a cube over an office so that I don't waste time decorating it.  This should work well. In fact, I've been talking to a couple of out of state companies about full time roles working remotely, and even if I ultimately go that route, I think I'll still work out of this space.  (More on that possibility in the next Redux post DIY for every single aspect of the business just isn’t going to happen )

I'm going to miss being near the kids and especially Margaret during the day, but I think if I just get the hell out of here and work uninterrupted for a decent chunk of the day, I can leave it behind each night when I come home and be glad to be home instead of chasing everyone away all the time.

Then I can spend some quality evenings learning about The Clone Wars undistracted.

-Chris

14 Weeks Redux: We're Not Dead Yet!

So, some of you who are playing along at home may have noticed that 14 wks has come and gone. The good news is that Fruhla is still alive. The bad news is that calling the blog 14 Weeks to Fruhla is still totally appropriate as we have at least 14 more weeks before we release the first app.

Am I frustrated? A little, but honestly, I knew 14 weeks was extremely aggressive and I didn't factor in time spent on spinning up on tech and tools, nor a concurrent search for a full time job. But I also know myself and I work better with a very hard deadline, so I chose 14 wks because that was how much financial runway we had at the onset of the project. Along the way, good friends have been referring me for consulting gigs, and I’ve taken a couple to fill the coffers so we’re now good until at least October. Which ironically, is exactly 14 more weeks.

So, what have I learned these first 14 weeks and what's the new plan going forward?

Well first of all

1. I am pathetic at keeping a blog up to date and then I publish these enormous diatribes that probably go unread.
   New Plan: Write large pieces ahead of time, then encapsulate them into smaller bite-size posts to encourage a dialog.

So with that in mind, I am going to put out the rest of what I’ve learned as separate installments over the next few days.

Tomorrow:  2: Why working independently, in a basement, in your home is a really, really bad idea.