Wow, I feel like I could have written this a year ago -- I was doing exactly this. To-do lists, three coffee shops a day, 1-2 hour breaks in between, super-productive, as I've been bootstrapping my software product.
Then I ran into problems:
1) Wi-fi problems. Wound up getting a cellular dongle for the laptop, but there are still a surprisingly number of places it doesn't work reliably. When you need to push something to server ASAP, this is a killer.
2) It's exhausting. You only have so much mental energy. Finding suitable coffee shops online, finding them in person, exploring, walking, figuring out what to do for food -- this stuff is basically going to take up your entire day outside of work, no joke.
3) No "zone". If you have lots of bite-sized pieces of work to do, that don't require massive amounts of concentration, it can work really well. If you need to write a new database wrapper that is really just a sustained 8 hour stretch, you can't do it.
Then, there's the little details. Outlets for laptops. Spotty reception for phone calls. What to do with your laptop while you use the bathroom and there's a line, but you can't see your table from the line. The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter. And so on.
And above all, the last week here in NYC has been like 15-20°F. Forget about walking around outside. So I'm actually learning, there's something to be said for working from home, in a reliable environment. And then, to get out of the house, I schedule lunches with people, go to the gym, "extracurriculars" like basketball, music groups, that kind of thing. It actually works pretty well.
> The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter.
This is done very much on purpose to subtly (passive-aggressively?) discourage people from camping out and using their coffee shops as offices.
Maybe, but 99% of the time it's because the proprietors can't pay their bills when people occupy their limited seating area for hours and hours on end without spending any money. Take the hint and find a Starbucks.
Good feedback. Here's a few counter points to the ones you brought out.
1) If you spend the time at the beginning vetting the places, you tend to figure out the intricacies. Once you find 3-5 shops, you can pretty easily avoid the ones with spotty wifi.
2) I find it actually does the opposite - it energizes me getting up, being outside & moving every once in a while.
3) I find my "zone" ends up tapping out after 3 hours anyway. I don't know the last time I can honestly say I had a productive 8 hours of "straight" work.
As for your location, that's a valid point. I just moved to San Diego for the winter. I couldn't (or probably wouldn't) have done this in the winter in Chicago.
I don't know about not being able to do this in Chicago. We live in Uptown and I can think of six do-able work locations within a three block radius of my house. I probably wouldn't've ventured out on Monday and Tuesday, when we have severe windchill, but I _could_ have.
The one near me has no problem with someone setting up a laptop for a day, has plenty of plugs, never a line for the bathroom, and provides a quiet working space.
I live a few blocks away from the main library in my city, they have a fiber connection through the state college that's in our county, for 150mbs connection.
There are some people in there looking for jobs and surfing Facebook but there aren't a ton of people in there using the wireless.
The problem is, it's useless for anything but web surfing. No github, no apt-get, no ssh, heck I couldn't even download the latest Java SDK.
Public libraries, at least in the UK, has very strict policies on their broadband connections. zyou cannot connect to non-standard ports there. Normally only the 80 is open.
My local library has neither broadband nor toilet, but it does have power, and is always quiet. Crazygringo has described my days well, but I also have to coordinate my library time. There are paid workspaces nearby, which would cost about £150 per month more than the coffee shop, which I'll probably try out soon for a month. Working from home I certainly can't do in the morning at least, as I need the ritual of the 20 minute walk to "work". I believe Rene Magritte used to leave home in the morning, having kissed his wife goodbye, would walk around the block a few times, then return home to work.
Which ones? I sometimes work in the Swiss Cottage library and the Internet connection is usable and they don't seem to block ports. One alternative is to get a 3G/4G usb dongle.
Yeah, also tried this. The biggest thing that prevents me from working in a coffee shop is that it is simply uncomfortable. My home office is totally optimized for my comfort, with a big monitor and a comfy chair. I've tried working from cafes, but if anything they seem to be designed to be a bit uncomfortable to get you to finish your coffee fast.
Yes those are retractable power strips hanging over the tables. Incidentally (re: your username) this place is called Bennu and yes I just wanted to show it off cause it's great, and open 24/7.
Yup, as noted in many other threads that external monitor is critical and the chair, comfortable keyboard and my shelf of reference books are pretty critical, as are ear plugs and headphones.
I floated the idea to a couple coffee shops of buying some Costco 23" monitors and renting them for $4/hour, but nobody bit
How common is it to work out of coffee shops? Where I'm from (Norway) I think you'd be asked to leave if you were to be sitting in a coffee shop day in and day out - unless you were drinking a whole lot of coffee, eating a lot of food, and drinking a lot of beer in the evening. Is it mostly a day-time activity perhaps? When the shop could be mostly empty anyway? The start-up culture is not so strong here though, and people tend to lease space in dedicated "start-up spaces".
Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing.. I'm sure there's places that are quite empty and let you stay for a while during the day. But with the prices here it's cheaper to rent a co-working space than buy 3 cups of coffee each day :)
Very common in US, very rare in Eu. I believe is partially cultural, partially to show off, and mostly because there aren't enough public study spaces/libraries. (at least in Northwestern). In Eu, you look like a dork if you work in a bar, because is much more common to go to libraries. And to find suitable spots in an university to study.
What about a co-working space? Prices range from $400-800/mo depending on space, privacy, and neighborhood; comes with "everything included" for a productive office space; is tax deductible. And you may meet other individuals or startups there during break times or evening events.
If you did a cost/benefit analysis on this already, I'd like to hear the details.
Note: I have worked from home for four months and then worked from a coworking space the past month.
Actually I did, just a few blocks away, right in that price range. It's a beautiful space with floor-to-ceiling windows (apparently they use it on weekends for film shoots and whatnot).
But I found it didn't actually provide anything, except for extremely high-quality coffee -- everyone was extremely hard at work, there wasn't really any socialization going on at all, so it was hard to see any reason to pay, when it wasn't really different from working from home.
It seemed to make more sense as a location once you've got your first two or three employees and you all want to have a spot to work together, but you don't want to rent a proper office yet.
But I'm sure a lot of coworking spaces are all different.
So, you decided to continue working from home. For context, do you have your own home/apt? Or do you have roommates? Or partner/kids?
I've seen in other threads that this becomes a factor. Having other people around (though sometimes distracting) keeps you fresh and helps prevent loneliness. Perhaps your motivation to do out-of-the-house activities help.
It's an apt, my own, no roommates. So it's great for getting work done, because there aren't tons of distractions.
But on the other hand, you absolutely do need to be very on top of scheduling activities, and make sure you get out of the house at least once a day. Friends, romantic partner, sports, groups, these things are all key no matter if you work from home or not, but especially if you work from home.
I'm at one and I would recommend it. But it's not the perfect solution, It provides you some socialization but it can be a little bit distracting: people chatting, mobile phones, somebody wants to show you a youtube video...
We have the rule that somebody with headphones cannot be distracted, but even with this sometimes is hard to get focused.
For all the people working at coffee shops/libraries... how do you deal with having to leave the place for a few minutes? For example, say you receive a call at a library, or want to go to the bathroom, etc. Do you take your laptop with you or do you risk getting it stolen?
Leaving my laptop unattended is the main point that stops me from working away from home
I usually ask someone who's been sitting there for a while to keep an eye on it. Hasn't been stolen yet! Though the coffee shops I work in tend to have other people doing work as well, with people sitting next to me.
I do a lot of my work from the cafe at Barnes & Noble, and I routinely walk away for extended periods of time, leaving my laptop sitting on the table, my car keys and wallet in my backkpack beside the table, and a cup of coffee sitting there. I've been doing this routinely for well over a year, and I've never had any of my stuff messed with.
Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't really feel like the crowd of people who come in there contains a lot of people who are going to try to steal a laptop or anything. And there are usually plenty of people around, and I've gotten to know a lot of the other "regulars" so that probably helps as well.
One note for wifi - if you have a home cable modem, find out if your carrier (and plan) are part of http://www.cablewifi.com/. In Comcast territory, it seems like these days most business connections going in also come with a wifi hotspot completely separate from the business service - the only common item is they're on the same coaxial cable and they plug an adapter in. I believe Comcast is putting these in a bunch of their outside equipment cabinets as well, so you'll find coverage in the oddest places.
The connections are fast, and at least in the Chicago area they've been spreading like the plague (they use red blobs to show areas of coverage/infection on a map).
Also find out if any of your friends has a cable internet carrier that's part of that deal. (Almost certainly yes.) Then beg or bribe them to create a sub-account for you under their cable account. (At least with Comcast this is easy, for some small number of accounts.)
Thanks to my cable provider's wifi network, I can get fast connections at my laundromat. Great time to get things done, since you're spending most of the time waiting for clothes to finish washing.
The no "zone" thing is a big one. I feel like to churn out quality work I need absolute peace and quiet. A coffee shop is a massive distraction. People coming in and out, espresso machines, miscellaneous chatter; it's tough to concentrate and get some quality work done. Coffee shops just aren't made for that.
Then I ran into problems:
1) Wi-fi problems. Wound up getting a cellular dongle for the laptop, but there are still a surprisingly number of places it doesn't work reliably. When you need to push something to server ASAP, this is a killer.
2) It's exhausting. You only have so much mental energy. Finding suitable coffee shops online, finding them in person, exploring, walking, figuring out what to do for food -- this stuff is basically going to take up your entire day outside of work, no joke.
3) No "zone". If you have lots of bite-sized pieces of work to do, that don't require massive amounts of concentration, it can work really well. If you need to write a new database wrapper that is really just a sustained 8 hour stretch, you can't do it.
Then, there's the little details. Outlets for laptops. Spotty reception for phone calls. What to do with your laptop while you use the bathroom and there's a line, but you can't see your table from the line. The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter. And so on.
And above all, the last week here in NYC has been like 15-20°F. Forget about walking around outside. So I'm actually learning, there's something to be said for working from home, in a reliable environment. And then, to get out of the house, I schedule lunches with people, go to the gym, "extracurriculars" like basketball, music groups, that kind of thing. It actually works pretty well.