
Working Best at Coffee Shops - GiraffeNecktie
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/working-best-at-coffee-shops/237372/
======
mechanical_fish
My theory is subtly different from these. I sometimes call it "ambient
sociability".

Humans are pack creatures. If you put us in solitary confinement we go insane.
This is generally true even for introverted people; only on the far edge of
the bell curve do you find people who crave absolute solitude for weeks or
months on end (and these people tend to be really odd, and it's often hard to
tell if the oddness is cause or effect.)

However, as every reader of programming productivity books knows, being
surrounded by a bunch of people that is _constantly interrupting you_ makes it
hard to focus. And so civic design has evolved the library, the coffeeshop,
and the coworking space: Places where you can be alone yet also surrounded by
people.

The secret is to surround yourself with people who don't have the same agenda
as you. Then you won't often be interrupted by things that break your focus:
The staff might occasionally ask to refill your coffee, and you'll get
interrupted if the building catches fire, but otherwise you can work on your
own thing.

~~~
generalk

      > The secret is to surround yourself with people who don't
      > have the same agenda as you
    

Absolutely. I was called for Jury Duty a few months back. No courts ended up
needing jurors during my two week service, so I ended up sitting in a
comfortable room with wifi and a bunch of people I didn't know who weren't
interested in what I was doing.

I got more work done in those two weeks than I had sitting in my office or
working from home. It was magical. The next time a heavy deadline rolls around
I'm considering packing my stuff and heading to the university library --
anywhere where I can reattain that ambient sociability.

~~~
btam
There's also the possibility that this comes more from the _change_ in
atmosphere than the particular atmosphere that you change to. Maybe for some
people here the change to an atmosphere of ambient sociability is just more of
a contrast than the alternatives they've tried.

I've heard and have a lot of anecdotal evidence that would suggest this, but
of course that's anecdotal evidence. However, I think most of the answers here
are influenced at least somewhat by this.

Thoughts?

~~~
rudasn
I think you are referring to the Hawthorn effect/experiment:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect>

------
timr
I realize that I'm fighting the tide, but I'm going to ask anyway: _please_
don't do this very often. And when you do, please have basic respect for other
people, purchase from the business frequently (every hour or so, at minimum),
limit your total seat time to an hour if the place is crowded, and don't be
"that guy" -- the dude spread over two tables, with the laptop stand, the
iPad, the backup drive, the portable keyboard, mouse, etc.

There's nothing worse than walking into an otherwise pleasant cafe and being
unable to sit because the place is filled with laptop zombies and/or dudes
(and it's _always_ dudes) holding "business" meetings. In San Francisco and
Seattle, there are _dozens_ of cheap co-working facilities, but you still
can't get a seat to eat lunch in a place like Coffee Bar or the Creamery for
all of the nerds that crowd in between 9AM and 5PM.

Finally, if you find yourself working at a cafe for eight hours a day, every
day, you're abusing the system. Go to a co-working facility, and _pay the
minimal amount of money for a desk_. If you can afford paying for multiple
coffees every day, you can afford a co-working space. If you can't afford
either, you should work at home, or in a library. The coffee shop is not your
personal, low-rent office space.

~~~
blhack
I see your point, but I absolutely do not think that a lot of coffee shops
would be at the point they are today without the "laptop zombies" (which have
supplanted people with books, or people with pencils and paper).

The coffee shop I go to has completely embraced them, and has little
workspaces for everybody to use.

I probably wouldn't ever go to a boutique coffee shop if not to use it as a
workspace, and I don't know many people who would either.

If I'm looking for a place to just hang out with some friends, there are many,
many, many bars and restaurants that are _much_ more conducive to "hanging
out" than coffee shops are.

I think coffee shops have _always_ been workspaces, and I don't think the
modern coffee shop would exist without the customers that a lot of people seem
to think are leeches.

------
edw519
Not my experience. Here's why...

A coffee shop and a laptop are convenient, even fun ways to produce _mediocre
content_. A blog entry, email, maybe even cleaning up a few lines of code. But
as most programmers know, sooner or later, you have to enter another mode to
get that additional "oomph" to get the important critical-path work done. Some
call it "the zone".

In fact we just talked about this the other day:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2450260>

A coffee shop is probably the best way to think you've entered the zone
without actually entering the zone. The can be very dangerous. You've had a
good time surrounded by like minded people (kinda like being here at hn), but
you've never actually transcended anything really important.

I spend time at the library one or more times per week, sometimes just to get
out of the office. It's fun to think and get transactions done, but
fortunately, I have an internal guide that tells me, "Time to get back to the
silence, large screen, and comfortable chair of the office to get the real
work done."

I realize that this isn't the same experience as others, but I still often
want to ask them, "Did you really get done what you wanted to get done in the
coffee shop?"

This subject reminds me of a great line from Joel Spolsky's "Hitting the High
Notes":

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html>

"Five Antonio Salieris won't produce Mozart's Requiem. Ever. Not if they work
for 100 years."

My version:

"Five workers in the coffee shop won't produce the killer work that one in a
dedicated space can produce. Ever. Not if they drink 100 lattes."

~~~
mechanical_fish
I absolutely agree that my best work is done in a silent atmosphere. I can't
even listen to music, it's so distracting.

But, having observed this, I tried locking myself in a completely private
apartment all day, with the perfect ergonomic desk and everything, and waited
for the magic to happen. That turns out to be too much of a good thing. It
just does not work. I knew that I was cracking up when I went to the barber
one afternoon and it ended up being the highlight of my day. When you find
yourself tearing up at the prospect of spending fifteen glorious minutes
making stupid small talk with a barber that you've never met before you know
that you're spending too much time alone.

My guess is that what I really need is a small private office (home office, or
otherwise) within easy walking distance of a library or coffeeshop or, better
yet, both. Mix it up a little.

~~~
chewbranca
Silence is great, but sometimes silence can be, well, too silent. I bounce
back and forth between coffee shops and my home office, because sometimes I
want to sit at home in silence or listen to music, and othertimes sitting at a
coffee shop with a lot of ambient noise helps me get into the zone. Something
about having a lot of random noise around that I don't care about listening
too helps me concentrate.

~~~
rjprins
<http://www.simplynoise.com> and/or <http://www.rainymood.com>

~~~
limmeau
Or more customizable: <http://boodler.org/>

------
kariatx
I am probably the last person on HN to realize this. I've been working at home
for ages (like since Hanson was still a popular band), and I'm really finding
out how wacky the long term psychological effects are.

Spending too much time at home makes me more negative about everything. In
particular, I'm starting to wonder if working from my home office makes me a
little too pessimistic about my business and less willing to take risks. I
feel pretty crabby about work when I'm working from my home desk, but as this
article points out, working at a coffee shop makes my work seem cooler. That
shift in attitude is a revelation both for productivity and creativity.

~~~
pstack
I've been working from home for a dozen years and I love it. The past six
years have been spent working at night (I'm a night-owl, anyway). I love it.
The faux socialization (and interruptions, conflicts, inanity, politics, etc)
are too often highly overrated. I'll take my solitude, any day. It may mean
that I seldom see the sun and go out in public even less frequently than
_that_ , but I'll take that over the regular rat race, any day. Plus, all the
people I would work with in my division are spread across the planet, anyway.
Even if I worked at the office, I would be twelve hundred miles away from the
closest colleague who does what I do.

I find that the reward of more free time (no commute, work when I'm most
productive, no hassle about presentation, no noise or inanity, etc) outweighs
absolutely everything else. I have turned down far more lucrative offers
within and outside of the same company over the years, simply because the
benefit of working from home is so extraordinarily appealing to me. A few
years ago, I turned down a position that would have involved a 50% increase in
salary, because it would have meant going to an office 8-5 five days a week.
(And when you figure in commute and getting ready in the morning, it's more
like 6am-6pm).

I have occasionally thought that the whole public space thing - were I could
be alone, but not - may be appealing. I have always turned it down, however,
because all of the people I know have negative connotations to guys in coffee
shops or cafes with their laptops and cell phones. They associate a guy at the
coffee shop doing work with the guy who stands in public with a cell phone
(that probably isn't even on) yelling "buy! sell! buy!" to make himself look
important. I'd probably then spend all my time being self-conscious about
whether everyone around me is just looking at me like I'm some pretentious
asshole, even though I'm just a guy wanting to have some tenuous connection
with the rest of the human race while I do my daily thing.

------
datapimp
My theory is that by opening up myself to the possibility of meeting a woman
keeps me on my toes and harnesses my darwinian energy which I then channel
into my work. Working at home in my underwear doesn't create this
psychological situation.

------
T_S_
If you are in the Bay Area check out Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. If you
want, you can think of it as a coffee shop with

1) Free coffee __. Open 24 hours.

2) Screens you can hook up if needed.

3) Other coffee drinkers who also hack.

4) Very fast internet connection.

5) Happy hour on Friday, when you need to lose the caffeine edge.

 __Guests are welcome. There is a box for voluntary suggested donation.
Membership is $100 per month. Remember the "no free cup of coffee" theorem. :)

------
ezy
I love taking a break from home working and hitting a coffee shop. For me,
it's just a way to improve my mood. Similarly, I'll break out the lawn chair
and sit outside to work -- that is just as effective emotionally, but not
quite as practical (glare, no real table, etc.)

My only gripe with coffee shops is the bathroom break. No way am I leaving a
$2000 laptop on a desk unattended, but after a few cups of anything, you have
to go. Sometimes I'll ask someone to watch it for me, but if there's no one
who's around consistently or who seems trustworthy, this can't always work. So
I end up packing up my shit then unpacking it again...

~~~
technomancy
I guess it depends on the kind of place in which you work, but I leave mine
(screen locked) at my table all the time.

Alternatively: get a lighter laptop and set it so you can close it without
putting it to sleep; then you can take it with you easily. You don't need to
pack everything up; the resale value of an unattended power adapter is quite
low.

------
famousactress
I agree with working in restaurants. The coffee shops near me that have wifi
are full of telecommuters gaming for the tables with power outlets. For some
reason I find it way more distracting to be surrounded by other remote
employees oogling their laptops than I do people eating or drinking coffee.

In my area there are a few restaraunt/bars however that have great wifi, few
remote employees, food that isn't scones, and better music. Also, they're
completely dead in between meal times so no one minds if I hang out from noon
to 4pm.

------
geebee
Working at coffee shops, for some reason, just _feels_ really great. I learned
calculus in coffee shops, and I really enjoy coding in them now. I hadn't
thought of restaurants - that was a good idea about showing up in the early
afternoon, when they won't need the table for a while.

I do have a personal rule - no being a coffee shop mooch. I make sure I buy
something every now and then if I'm going to sit there for hours.

Diners are also a pretty excellent place to work. Even staid, corporate ones
actually do the trick for me, but places with a bit of character tend to be
more fun.

I actually think a coffee shop culture may be a key component to a creative
environment. I attended UC San Diego as an undergrad, and while it has some
wonderful qualities, I think it is missing the coffee shop scene you get at an
urban campus (Berkeley and Washington are a couple of good west coast
examples), where there's a seamless transition from the university to the
coffee shops immediately next to it. Don't get me wrong, the coffee shops in
the beach towns around San Diego are pretty great, and full of students
studying, but when you surround a university with them, you get a kind of
magic.

------
gwern
> ...when we are alone in a public place, we have a fear of "having no
> purpose". If we are in a public place and it looks like that we have no
> business there, it may not seem socially appropriate. In coffee-shops it is
> okay to be there to drink coffee but loitering is definitely not allowed by
> coffee-shop owners, so coffee-shops patrons deploy different methods to look
> "busy". Being disengaged is our big social fear, especially in public
> spaces, and people try to cover their "being there" with an acceptable
> visible activity.

This reminds me of
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/2qv/antiakrasia_remote_monitoring_ex...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/2qv/antiakrasia_remote_monitoring_experiment/)
\- 2 guys using VNC to simulate the patrons of the coffee shop. You can't help
but feel that someone might be watching & judging you, and that prods you into
doing something more creditable.

Why does it work? My own opinion is that it's a hack on hyperbolic discounting
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_discounting>): we are wired to over-
value short-term gratification, so small penalties or shifts in difficulty can
put our desires back in whack to where they should rationally be.

Hence, melatonin can help you maintain the right sleep schedule & not stay up
on HN all night because it makes you sleepy
(<http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin.html#self-discipline>); but this perspective
cuts both ways - if you can make yourself do things with small shifts in
penalties/rewards, small shifts in penalties/rewards can _stop_ you from doing
things, hence you should 'beware trivial inconveniences'
(<http://lesswrong.com/lw/f1/beware_trivial_inconveniences/>).

------
ben1040
I like the theory they posit about the social expectation to look busy.

It's why I often take a walk down to the university library to work. There's a
long-standing social expectation that when you go to the library, you're there
to do serious things and be productive. You're not going there to yak with
your friends on IM, read HN, or surf Reddit for funny cat pictures, which is
what I will invariably find myself doing if I were at home. So I put my head
down and get to work!

Going to the library to work is one way I can find the motivation to still put
in 5 hours on a side project even after putting in an 8 hour work day. I sit
down at a table there and can immediately get traction on my projects.

It doesn't hurt either that the library is a few blocks from my house, is open
until 1 AM, and sells good coffee. I am going to have to find another good
nearby place that's open late though because the library is only open 8-5 in
the summer.

------
city41
I completely agree with this article. My problem is sacrificing my two
glorious 24" monitors for a tiny laptop screen. I feel the sacrificed real
estate really bites into the productivity gains of being in a place like a
coffee shop.

~~~
pasbesoin
Some company recently announced a portable monitor. It was kind of
ridiculously overpriced, but in absolute terms readily affordable, and
apparently quite transportable. The protective case flips down somehow to
become the stand. Dimensions were about on par with having another 14" or 15"
laptop screen. Sorry I don't have the reference at hand.

~~~
trotsky
I'm not sure if I just have a different perspective about this than most
people, but in my opinion you can easily overdo the whole office at the coffee
shop thing. If a spot I stopped at for a quick chat with someone or a bit of
coffee suddenly started having folks with laptops + extra monitors, I'd be
pretty unhappy.

~~~
city41
yeah and a space that specialized in that setup becomes one of those coworking
spaces and in many ways it brings you right back to square one.

------
orbitingpluto
If I hit a wall I have to change things up. If I'm not getting $#!7 done in
the office, I go to a cafe. Productivity at a cafe is never as high, but I
chock that up to screen real estate. One monitor for Eclipse and one monitor
for docs. Otherwise I'm wasting time flipping.

~~~
kmfrk
I think you have a great point in highlighting that the cafés are great - as a
fall-back. Ideally, you should have somewhere better to get more done, but if
you don't, or if it just doesn't work that day, everyone should have a go-to
place.

Always have back-ups; that includes work places.

------
daimyoyo
Perhaps it's because I'm introverted, but I have always had the exact opposite
reaction. Before I could afford to have Internet at my house, I had to use
coffee shops to get work done online, and it was almost unbearable. The noise
was a constant distraction, the smell of roasted coffee quickly became
something I couldn't stand, and most of all, I hated being bunched up against
everyone else. I suppose each experience will be different, but now that I've
had the pleasure of working at home, I wouldn't want to go back if I had a
choice.

~~~
kmfrk
Coffee shops are very different from each other. You may just not have managed
to find one that works for you.

I would also not want to stay in a place that matches your description, but
I'd be interested in a place that deals with the critique points.

------
Goladus
I am just noticing this. I currently work in a semi-cramped office with two
other guys, but it's connected to a modern steel/glass high-rise building
designed for academic research. It has a gorgeous, large cafeteria on the
second floor. It's pleasant enough and there's enough activity during the
morning and afternoon that it's a perfect place to work. Usually there are
about 5-10 people using the cafeteria to work at any given time, plus there
are lounge chairs situated at various points in the nearby hallways that can
work as well.

I am less likely to get distracted with stupid internet crap when I'm in the
public space. I find it relaxing, and I don't have the nagging feeling that by
sitting at my office desk chair I'm wasting my life. Often those feelings are
worth it all by themselves, even if there's no productivity change.

However, there are definitely distractions, and I find that I'm usually unable
to get fully focused in a public space. I am often drawn to someone walking by
or annoyed by a random smell. For difficult technical work, silence and peace
are usually more conducive, as well as my multi-monitor setup and fast, wired
ethernet connections.

But for stuff like reading email, and correspondence, knocking minor items off
your todo list, and defeating a procrastination block, being in a public space
seems to help a lot.

------
rmason
I need it to be fairly quiet to code with few distractions. Yet many of my
friends have to listen to loud music or they can't write code at all. It may
be ADD but it seems they need to distract a part of their brain to be able to
concentrate on the task.

Though I haven't much experience with them coworking spaces are much better
because you can bounce ideas off other developers. I think there's a
commaraderie as well that enhances the experience for me.

------
blhack
There is an interesting social accountability aspect to working in a coffee
shop, for me at least.

I work best with something playing in the background. A movie, some futurama,
some always sunny in philadelphia, etc. Or I work best with 30-40 minutes of
_code code code code_ followed by a few minutes of playing minecraft, or
reddit, or facebook, or something, followed by more coding.

When I'm at "work", in my office, I can't really just zone out and play
futurama on one of my monitors. That would be _totally_ inappropriate, and I
would probably get called out on it by one of my coworkers.

And if I'm at home, I have the dog wanting to play, or the roomate wanting to
go out, or a really awesome stereo begging to be played with, or a garage full
of DIY projects...

The coffee shop is right in the butter zone. I would never sit there for 8
hours watching Futurama, but I don't feel bad if I watch a bit of it. The
pressure to not look like an idiot is enough to keep me focused, and the
freedom to do whatever I want helps keep me relaxed.

It's perfect. This is made better by the fact that my local coffee shop has
nice little works-spaces for people to use.

(If you're a Phoenician, the coffee shop I'm talking about is Xtreme Bean in
Tempe)

------
pacaro
"My headphones, they saved my life"

I work at a larger company, on a team with ~30 devs, my role is less about how
much code I produce personally, and more about how I help the entire team
produce code.

However, there are still days when what matters is me getting shit done - when
those days come I pull on a pair of headphones (decent DJ cans) and put my
entire music collection on random (which is less "random" than I'd like, but
HN already knows that) - volume set to the lowest audible level.

This works for me: 1) the headphones are a subtle (and therefore more
effective) Do-Not-Disturb sign; 2) the ambient conversations are eliminated
(which is why DJ cans with high passive noise reduction are better); 3) It
helps shrink the world down to the space of me and the problem to be solved.

Changing my environment also works: shutting an office door (if you have one);
working in a conference room; cafeteria; coffee shop; park; library; at home
at the kitchen counter - but all of those require that I _visibly_ isolate
myself from the team, the headphones are more like a psychological
invisibility cloak or SEP field.

------
kadavy
I practically have my coffee shop productivity down to a science. I have
certain places for brainstorming, certain places for when I want some quiet &
solitude, & certain places for when I want to feel relaxed vs. focused. I've
written a good deal of my book at a very well-featured Whole Foods in Chicago.

I also meet up with other entrepreneurs at a coffee shop every Wednesday. It's
great for exchanging ideas, or just having someone to watch your laptop while
you go to the bathroom: <http://jellychicago.com>

When I lived in SF, I started compiling information on various coffee shops,
based upon how good they were to work at. I kept track of if they had open
outlets, and how the staff acted towards people on laptops. It might be a bit
out of date, but here it is:
[http://moworking.pbworks.com/w/page/10316102/San-
Francisco-B...](http://moworking.pbworks.com/w/page/10316102/San-Francisco-
Bay-Area-WiFi-Hotspots)

------
mhb
_Perhaps if more restaurants or bars had wifi I too would work at them._

It is a little weird that despite the assertion that this arrangement is such
a productivity multiplier, many people prefer to be concerned about WiFi
availability rather than spend the ~$50/month for a cell modem enabling them
to make the world their cafe.

Luckily Hemingway brought paper and a pen with him.

------
nate
I read in Esquire or Wired or somewhere (I'm having trouble finding the source
online) that smells change our perception of time. Baby powder slows down time
for us. Coffee beans speed it up. Perhaps we frequent coffee shops to get work
done, because we want the work or workday to get done faster.

------
joshklein
I think whether you work best in a one kind of ambient atmosphere versus
another (a place of social interactions versus a place of quiet) depends on
whether you are an introvert or an extrovert.

Introverts and extroverts are equally able to function and enjoy both
environments, but an introvert has to "turn it on" in a social atmosphere, and
therefore needs quiet alone time to recharge his batteries. An extrovert is
the opposite; he has to "zone himself in" to make use of quiet alone time, and
needs social time to recharge his batteries.

I think extroverts are the people who enjoy the ambience of the coffee shop,
drawing energy from the hustle and bustle around them. Introverts find this
more taxing; they're just as able to do work, but they'd probably be more
productive in a quiet study room.

------
alexknowshtml
I recently went on our company retreat and spent 7 days in the Spanish
countryside.

The last 2 days of the trip, we were in Barcelona.

While the entire trip was productive for important reasons (Wildbit is an
entirely distributed and international team and spending social time with the
team was extremely valuable and enjoyable), I found more inspiration and
motivation from the couple of days in the city compared to the peacefulness of
the countryside.

I wrote more about the experience here:

<http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2011/04/signal-seeking/>

Of note: "Noisy environments provide sort of a filter to cut through the noise
in my head. Sort of like panning for gold, if everything goes well, all of the
cruft fades away and I’m left with some nugget of gold."

------
kayoone
Ive been working from home since late 2006 until early 2011. I was pretty
happy with it despite always having the feeling of not getting enough done.

I now work in an office in my own startup and simply love it. Conversations
with other engineers, the whole energy of people working on the same thing in
the same room and actually being able to differentiate between work and being
at home are things i really really love right now.

I now have to commute 20min (one way) by car, but i dont really care. Sitting
at home all the time and having your highlight of the day being a walk to the
grocery store is depressing after several years ;)

I wouldnt want to work in a coffeeshop though, maybe as a writer, but as an
engineer i need my large screens, comfy chair and big desk.

------
hugh3
I've tried working outside the office. Usually I can get intensive work done
in short bursts, but it's too tempting to go take a walk and set up your
temporary office in some _other_ location for a while. "You've been in this
cafe for too long, you should go to the library... this library is dark and
ugly, why not go sit on a bench outside? This bench isn't really comfortable
and the screen is too glary... but hey, it's time for lunch and there's a
really great place only twenty minutes' walk away..." Finally I get to the end
of the day and figure out I've done about four good twenty-minute periods of
work and had a really nice stroll in the Botanical Gardens.

------
kmfrk
I've tried finding something similar in my (European) country, too.
Unfortunately, we don't have any Starbucks, and I find the silence in
libraries to be too loud for my taste.

I've found two "eh" coffee shops, but one's always crowded and has poor
ventilation, and the other one cranks up the music as if to scare people into
only buying take-away, while the coffee-grinder or blender makes it impossible
to get anything done on the same floor.

I've actually considered doing a start-up coffee shop to address this very
thing, but it's to big an undertaking at the moment. And I'd rather do it in a
country that seems to respect that culture already, which renders the idea
somewhat moot.

~~~
dualogy
"I've found two 'eh' coffee shops, but one's always crowded and has poor
ventilation, and the other one cranks up the music as if to scare people into
only buying take-away, while the coffee-grinder or blender makes it impossible
to get anything done on the same floor."

Well guess what Starbucks is? The combination of these two.

Well maybe only in the countries where I frequent Starbucks... ie. wherever
there are no decent "indie cafes" to speak of.

------
scrrr
I'd speculate that most people are more effective when they feel observed and
having strangers around you creates that situation.

Now coming to think about it I think this is why they had posters of the
leader in "1984" everywhere.

~~~
dualogy
Then I'm not most people. It's _exactly_ reverse for me. Way less effective
when I feel observed. Luckily I don't feel observed in a coffee shop much,
most of the time. Whenever I do, I decide to "observe back" and notice that
no-one was observing anyway.

------
emehrkay
I love being the "typical apple hipster" at the coffee shop or bookstore or
panera with my macbook open and textmate filling my screen.

You know what's boring? Track practice for 9 year olds, but it is a great time
to sit and code. I churn out so much code while those little legs move around
the track.

I just love not working in the house. It's crazy since I absolutely love
looking at how people have their home offices setup on sites like
wherewedowhatwedo.com and lifehacker's featured workspaces. forgot about
<http://www.deskography.org/>

------
mpg33
I find this works for me when i working on "output" related tasks..such as
assignments, projects (ie creating something).

However when I am trying to learn/study and retain information I find I need a
mostly quiet area.

------
RobertKohr
Anyone know a good mp3/ogg of coffeeshop sounds? That might be entertaining to
play on headphones to pretend that you are at a coffee house.

Better yet if a coffee shop sets up an audio stream :)

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bf84
Here is one I recorded years ago:

<http://bf84.com/s/coffee.mp3>

Only two minutes, though. :-[

I used to be kind of into recording "spaces." My favorite was a movie theater
lobby, very tall and echo-y.

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coffeenut
FWIW, parts of Windows Server 2003 were written at Starbucks ;)

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spjwebster
My take on this is that there's a little part of my brain that wants (nay,
needs) to be distracted so that I can actually get on with working. It can be
a TV in the next room, a movie or video game soundtrack pumping in my
headphones, or a coffee shop full of people and white noise. If that part of
my brain isn't distracted by these things, it interrupts the main thread and I
find myself lost in HN, my feeds, the BBC website… anywhere but my work.

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rilindo
I'm surprised. 81 comments in and nobody commented on the real reason why you
work best in the coffee shop: that's where all the hot people are.

You don't go there to work. You go there to look busy while you people watch
and maybe- just maybe, get somebody's attention. As a result, you get a lot of
work done, because you can only surf idly for so long alone.

Its like the gym, except more fattening.

:)

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MatthewB
I never liked working at coffee shops when I was working for myself. For me
the best place to work is at home. Working at home can be very difficult but
if you have the discipline and a quiet work space it can be very productive.

Definitely don't have a TV in the same room as you work. Also, playing music
with headphones is great to get in the "zone."

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daydream
At both the office and home distractions abound. Different distractions, and
there's generally less at home, but they're the types of distractions I either
can or need to engage with.

At a coffeeshop there are distractions, but they generally aren't ones I can
or feel compelled to engage with. For me, it's easier to focus on the task at
hand.

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michaelty
Just needs to be a clean and well-lighted place.

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ericmoritz
plus there's an endless supply of coffee; that does wonders for productivity.

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pavel_lishin
When working at home, I find it a nice break walking over to the coffee maker
or teapot to make myself a fresh cup.

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bxr
I think that many of the points hint at it, but don't directly address the
fact that the work space is inherently temporary. If I were to get up right
now and go use one of our lab bench computers I'd be getting more done even
though its not 20 feet away from my desk. Nothing else would change, anyone
who came to or called my desk would still get to me, it wouldn't change the
hour I leave. I think our designated workspaces can get us into a rut that
leads to less productivity.

