5 Spots Close to Salt Lake City to Get Some Work Done
Need a change of scene from your bedroom converted home office?
If you are like me and you transitioned to full remote work this year, you may be feeling stir crazy. I know that I am in desperate need of getting out of the house. I love my home set up and I actually put a lot of work into making it a healthy and comfortable office setting, but there is some un-measurable need to be in proximity with other people. I don’t even need to talk to people most of the time, just being within sight of them eases my mind and gives me some sense of normality, which is something I think we can all use right now.
I did some digging and decided to make the effort to go out at least twice a week and work somewhere other than my house. With that said, here are some ideas for getting out and back to society.
Local Coffee Shops
At first it can seem tough to find coffee shops around Salt Lake but there are a few gems to be had. Once you find one that fits your style, these can be great places to sit down, have some food or indulge in some coffee, and work for a while. More often than not I find them to be quite busy, so I recommend that you continue to order drinks if you are there for a while, or don’t take up the seating for yourself all day. Be courteous of the other customers. A couple of my recommendations are Green House effect in Millcreek and Apollo coffee by the porcupine.
The Library
It is insane at how underrated libraries are! They are amazing. You can get free books, movies, printing resources, you can even rent nice telescopes! They often also have great spaces to work and even cubbies if you need to take calls. They will be quieter than coffee shops and you aren’t stressing the businesses by taking up a seat for hours on end.
You should get on Google right now and find out where your closest library is and make a plan to check it out this week. Pack up your laptop and some work and head over. You will probably need to set up a library card which is really quick and while you are at it, let them give you the tour and the downlow on what resources they have.
The Museum
This is is a bit of a combo. Often times Museums have spots where you can chill and they usually often have some kind of café attached to it. These can be an in between, in terms of noise, of libraries and cafes. If you work in a creative career field, doing some remote work at a museum could help get the open up the mind and let the ideas flow.
Co-Work Space
These spaces really speak for themselves. They are designed and made to work in. Often times they will be the nicest spaces and come with plenty of perks, but those come at a cost. It can be expensive as a solo to get a membership to these space but if you earn enough and you miss the office feel then they can definitely be worth it. There is a lot of room for collaboration here as well.
Kiln is a local work space which is very hip and fits the silicon slopes crowd well and there is also WeWork of course. There are several other local workspaces as well, but I have not been to those. A tip though is that you can usually get 1 or more days for free as a trial if you want to jump around and tree a few.
Bonus spots: College Campus and the Park
Two other places I have really enjoyed working at are local parks and around the college campus. Most parks will have the occasional outlet you can utilize if you need to or just roll out a blanket and hit the keys until you run out of battery.
On campus there are really too many places to list. Pretty much every building and outdoor space on the campuses will be workable. Feel free to explore and find a hidden sport or if you are more of the social type then just follow the crowd.
It has been a long year, years, whatever you want to call it since covid began, and the transition to remote work has been a learning experience for us all. I have tried to consciously explore and maintain a positive work experience throughout it and part of that has been a dedication to explore my city and neighborhoods. I want to support the local community and it is nice to have the option to do that now and work where ever my feet can take me. I hope that there was at least a small nugget of wisdom in here that you can take with you for your own remote work journey.
In doing this I realized that you are helping more than just yourself in doing changing this up. You are supporting your community. A lot of local places were hit extremely hard last year and any bit you can do to support them helps out immensely.
It is still important to be safe and make sure you take all of the necessary precautions. It is time we begin to phase back into society in a smart way. We need to recognize the mental health aspect of this pandemic and the effect on local business. Last year shined a light on many things and one thing that is for sure is that we need to support each other.
