working from cafes

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I love this post SO much! It’s everything I think and feel, and so glad to have read this. It’s strange, but true that at home I achieve about nothing, and when in a café I get everything done at light-speed. Thanks for sharing x

if truth be know I am the worst shop keeper, but it does give me some where that isn’t home from where I can write and edit my photos. Occasionally I sell stuff, sometimes to my surprise quite a lot of stuff. But really I’m just there because I like to watch the world go by and write my blog. It’s cheaper than an office and I don’t have to pay for the coffee.

It’s EXACTLY how I feel! I find working in a cafe is so much more effective, and I always work better there.

I struggle to work from home too and always have, even as a student. For me, it’s the laundry and the chores etc, but I agree that being around other people somehow takes the edge off. I wonder if perhaps work (especially creative or original work) comes easiest when we take the pressure off by being somewhere not associated with “work” – a place whose primary purpose is something entirely different? Somehow that allows us the freedom to just play around and not take things so seriously, especially if we have a tendency to be overly self-critical.

I’ve never worked in a cafe but I always wonder what the cafe owners think if you sit there nursing the same coffee for two hours!! Do they not try to move you along?? I remember me and my sister trying to find a place to sit in a coffee house not long ago and it was full. So off we went, came back an hour later and the same people were sitting in the same place and their cups were empty. Me and my sister where hungry!!! I’m thinking…Move!! ;))

Oh my the inner critic which destroys all productivity…I know him well. This post feels like you’ve given voice to something which has been niggling away at me for some time.

A new area, the difficulties of making friends and a hard fought for, but latterly hard loathed, home working lifestyle have all led to me struggling to “create” in my own way, and feeling guilty about needing to base myself somewhere other than home or a soulless office to work.

I need to let go of the feeling “I have it too good” by being able to work like this and embrace it for what it is self indulgent cafe working and all.

Now I’m going to scare that inner angry voice away with some belated christmas cake baking and come back to writing a pithy meaningful strategy later with a glass of wine and an air of thankfulness instead of defeat.

When I was at university I used to love working from cafes, which is unfortunately not something you can do so easily whilst working in an office environment. I’d quite like to work from home, to be able to choose the time I start and finish as long as I get a set number of hours done each day would be blissful. Alice xx

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I feel the same! Thank goodness you commented and stopped me worrying if I’d just accidentally given away an undiagnosed mental condition! haha!
I’m definitely on the introvert side, and you’re so right – I love how eavesdropping on other people’s chats satisfies the social part of my brain without me having to put any actual effort in! I think there’s something in the fact that I have to get dressed & brush my hair to go there, too – if I stay at home, it’s easy to be stay in pyjamas and feel grotty.
Love the idea of revising in cafes, and suspect I’d have enjoyed exams a lot more if that had occurred to me! Definitely genius x

We had this discussion when I was still in school, in our humanities course and our teacher decided to ask about our study habits and most of the students in my class answered the same thing, we all have our own “productivity time”. Apparently there is no such thing (well according to some studies at that time, I don’t know why). Maybe because there are really “morning people” and “night owls”? Or because of habit too I guess.

Oh gosh, this made so much sense to me. Right down to ‘ringing husband in hysterical tears asking him to come home’. I did all the revision for my exams in cafes, for exactly the same reason, and everyone gives me disbelieving looks when I say that.

I think it works well for both introverts – because you don’t have to talk to people cafes, but you’re not alone – and extroverts like me, because you can sometimes talk to people in cafes and even if you don’t, you’re not alone. The distractions are something to concentrate against because my inner critic is loudest in silence (I love the idea of naming them, what a genius idea!) but it’s not noise I have to listen to. Oxford’s another place where lots of cafes are horribly crowded, but pick you time and location right, and they’re immensely rewarding to work in.

It’s so reassuring to hear it’s not just me, thank you!

I lived in Manchester for 13 years – mainly W Didsbury – so I know there are some great ones in your neck of the woods. I used to love going to the Woodstock or the met in the summer in the afternoon to work, they’re so big I could tuck myself into a corner easily. Chorlton and n quarter have some great ones too, although I feel that they may all be about 1000% too trendy for me now! I totally agree about the passive socialising – the best kind(!) – there’s something about being immersed in a sea – or small pond – of other people that is equal parts soothing and energising and allows me to focus. I think it’s partly that the places I would work here are either too bar-ish or they shut too early – I like to get my ‘must do at home today’ work done first and then get out, and I just haven’t got my timing right with that set up! I had a year in Belfast in between Manchester and returning to Edinburgh, and because of their very specific licensing laws, they have it just right – for me, at any rate. Lots of cafes open from dawn til late, I loved it! Have you seen the slightly ludicrous app, coffitivity? I kind of secretly love it.

Thanks Kathryn! It’s a relief to hear someone else has the same weekend apathy – such a strange phenomenon! I sometimes wonder if it’s partly just that I feel sad to be missing out on the lovely family times.
Cafes are a life saver for social interaction. As I’ve got familiar with the ones I frequent I’ve realised they all have a set of lonely, slightly quirky individuals who visit every day to keep themselves sane. It’s sad to think it’s necessary, but sort of wonderful that this network of coffee-filled hangouts exist 🙂 x

Hi Ola! Love your comment, thank you – you’re so right. My fiancee doesn’t really get the whole ‘spending time in a cafe’ thing – he likes to go in, drink his coffee and move on. I’m much more into the Starbucks vibe you describe. I’m so glad it changed to be this way! 🙂

Ah yes, the thought of sorting beads and delicate work in a cafe is a bit frightening! But I can definitely relate to getting out. I like how in cafes you can socialise passively; sometimes I’d rather just listen to someone else’s conversation than have my own. It’s less effort! ??
Do you think Edinburgh struggles for quiet cafes due to the student population? I’m lucky that in Manchester there’s quite a few, so if I feel too conspicuous in one I can mix it up for a few weeks afterwards 🙂 xx

Yes! Finding the right amount of daytime quiet (but not too much – I hate being the only customer all day!) is essential. Yes yes yes to ‘productivity time’! I really thought that was just me – why does this happen??

Hahaha! I don’t know why that doesn’t happen, as I’m usually that exact type too – but it doesn’t! Probably because I am too lazy to get up and order/walk to the shops, and prefer to stay in my chair at my internets ?? xx

Really interesting post. I totally get what you mean, when Greig takes the kids out at the weekend so i can work I immediately lapse into total apathy, miss them, feel guilty, waste time and then feel even more frustrated. I do manage to work a fair bit at home during the week but i also slip in a visit to a cafe most days: I need the physical break, the social interaction, not to mention the coffee and cake of course!!! Thanks again for a lovely honest post xx

Dear Sara, that post are so good! I
like it! Some weeks ago, I read book about Starbucks success. All what I read
about it is true. We love spent time in cafe room. Smell, taste and cozy nooks
are good for work, friends meeting or a date. It is a place between our homes
and workplace, so I am not suprissed that you spent your jobday in cafe, is so
inspiring! 🙂 Grandmother and Mum opinion? I think this generation doesn’t
understand it, like it: „why do you spend so much money for coffee, if you can
do it by yourself at home for free?”. I live in Poland and maybe 10 years ago I
will not work at cafe, because it was „so expensive then” to go for a coffee, now
everythings changed and it is popular 🙂 have a nice day!

Totally agree with this! Although for me, it’s all about the lack of distraction and focus when I do a lot of work at home. I am a jewellery designer but I also sell beads, so there’s lots of my work I *have* to do at home and when I have a lot of that on, I start to crave getting out to a cafe to work! I’m a bit gutted that i haven’t found many since moving back to Edinburgh – they’re all too blooming busy so either jam packed so I can’t get a look in or I feel horribly conspicuous as I ram myself and my work in beside someone at a counter. The search continues!

Yes, cafes are a must when it comes to productivity. From where I am living, the lesser known cafes are the best places to work. They let me hang around longer plus the peace and quiet I get is very good in stimulating creativity. There is also this I call “productivity time”. For me it is usually around 9 in the evening up to the wee hours. I don’t know why but I get so much done when the clock strikes at 9 PM.

Yey for cafe working!! Although I’m yet to try it, when smallest is a bit older I’ll probably be joining you… But I’m entirely unsure if I’d just get distracted by cake and then what to order for lunch, and then I might just pop to that shop I passed on the way in. And then oops it’s time to get eldest from school ??