My most productive period within the last 12 months was when I rented a desk in a co-working space for the summer so that I could catch up with a friend who also went there.
To me it was less his mere presence and more the ability to immediately share any thoughts that would occur to me. Also air conditioning.
Same goes with chores - I would much rather have someone be in the same room while I e.g. do the dishes or cook.
I also noticed that if I don't have anyone close, I start talking to myself.
That sounds like a strong argument for working from the office and it is, but to me it doesn't outweigh the disadvantages. For one I could pull this off only because my commute was short thanks to it being vacation season, so traffic was way smaller than normal.
> I could pull this off only because my commute was short
The other critical factor was sharing a space with somebody who wanted to work in a similar way. If you shared that space with somebody who was significantly more or less social, the impedance mismatch could have been very negative.
To me it was less his mere presence and more the ability to immediately share any thoughts that would occur to me. Also air conditioning.
Same goes with chores - I would much rather have someone be in the same room while I e.g. do the dishes or cook.
I also noticed that if I don't have anyone close, I start talking to myself.
That sounds like a strong argument for working from the office and it is, but to me it doesn't outweigh the disadvantages. For one I could pull this off only because my commute was short thanks to it being vacation season, so traffic was way smaller than normal.