A Journey of Coliving and Coworking in Palma

Let me take you back to the start of the year, I was holidaying in Mexico and stumbled across my first sighting of a coliving and coworking community – I was intrigued. On the plane home, I couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it would be to work and live in another country, but also that I love my home and my job so much that I wouldn’t want to give it all up. After a lot of research I found Palma Coliving on YouTube and once I got the go-ahead from work I applied, had my interview, and was accepted.

September seemed like the perfect time to fly out, summer was ending in Ireland and it was still reaching 28 degrees in Mallorca. So I set off for 6 weeks working in the sun. After a few days, I was fully settled into the villa, I had my own desk and screens, access to a larger coworking space, an abundance of balconies and terraces to work from, and of course the setup in the garden by the pool (this became my favourite spot to work from). We had a Happiness Officer in the villa who hosted yoga classes, community sessions, and tapas nights and made sure we had everything we needed during our stay.

Goal Discussions

We would meet every Monday for our community session, where we would discuss our personal and professional goals for the week, and also plan new activities and events for after work. I would be quite a goal-orientated person, but mostly in solitude with my journals and goal-setting diaries. Having a consistent group focus on personal and professional goals on a weekly basis was something that bolstered my drive and clarity on what I wanted to achieve. It got me thinking that I want to introduce more conversations like this with my friends and work colleagues, yes we have our one-to-ones at work but having discussions around what you want to achieve on a more casual and regular basis can really supercharge your intentions. Sometimes the question how are you? can seem a bit empty even though it’s meant to be quite a deep question. We tend to answer it with the same old “Yeah really good how are you?” which is met with a generic “Yes same here all good“.

How about asking “What is on your mind this week? Is there anything you want to achieve that I can help with? Do you want to brainstorm a solution to a specific problem?” Bear in mind that your goals don’t need to be extravagant.

Diverse Connections

Anyway, I digress! Back to the Coliving. I must say there is something pretty special about living and working with a group of motivated, successful, and inquisitive people. We had Colivers from all over the world – New Zealand, Finland, Netherlands, America, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary who all had a vast array of professional skills and viewpoints on life to share. I lived with Marketing Professionals, Software Developers, Inspirational Speakers, HR Directors, Graphic Designers, Product Managers, CEOs, UX Designers, and even Archeologists. Being in different surroundings has helped me look at solutions to problems in a different way, my creativity and drive was quintessentially thriving (and still is).

Creativity

I find that my best ideas come to me, not during meetings and board rooms but in outdoor spaces, when I am out for a walk, or during a break. I can find boardrooms to be a bit of a creativity crusher at times. When I am outside or near nature that’s when some of my best ideas come to light, but of course we have to make meetings and boardrooms work and it all depends on what type of person you are. When I grow up (lol), I would like to redefine the boardroom but that’s an article for another day. There is something about working in the garden, by the pool, under the shade of the lime trees that makes tasks you once found to be a bit tedious, seem less stressful and flow easier. I have brought the Palma Coliving energy back to Belfast with me and can honestly hand on heart say I am very excited for this next chapter of my life – both personally and professionally. Crazy what a little trip on a plane can do!

I mean Albert Einstein did say that the only source of knowledge is experience right? This is your sign to look into some new experiences.

If you would like to learn more about Palma Coliving you can check out their website here. You can also use my code Catherinebypalma for £100 off your booking!