Where do you go when you really want to get some work done?
Personal opinions and a statistically completely insignificant survey
Working on my PhD thesis on the beautiful Greek island of Syros back in 2016
In the introduction to their book Remote, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson ask the question posed in the title of this story. Where do you go when you really want to get some work done?
They follow up this questions with the note that ironically for most people the answer is not their office, the place which is supposedly designed for exactly this purpose.
This certainly resonates with me. Unless there is really a need for a face-to-face meeting, which is much more rarely than most people like to think, I personally feel rather unproductive in an office, with constant distractions, small requests, and urgent but unimportant tasks fighting for my attention and diverting it from the problem I am actually trying to solve.
My preferred places to get work done, write, or just generally be creative have for a long time been coffee shops. The fact that I love coffee is certainly one of the reasons, but there is so much more to it.
The wonderful background noises play a big role, too. The humming of the espresso machines, the random snippets of conversations intermixing, as well as the background music blend into something that’s more stimulating than just white noise, but doesn’t contain clear or relevant enough information so as to be distracting. It actually promotes creative thinking.
And this is not just my own anecdotal experience. This idea has been supported by various studies, which have even spawned apps and websites such as Coffitivity that allow you to replicate the coffee shop soundscape wherever you are.
The visual impressions act in a similar way. The constant changes are subtle enough so as not to tear my attention away from my work, while at the same time subconsciously feeding my creativity and helping me to get unblocked when I feel stuck with something.
Personally I also enjoy a change of scenery and well timed breaks to keep my productivity at a high level. I just can’t work for too long in one place.
Depending on the problem I’m working on, around 90 minutes to 2 hours seems to be the ideal time for one block of productive output, which also happens to roughly be the time I’m happy to occupy a table in a coffee shop before feeling too awkward about it. If I feel like continuing to work, I can just take a stroll to the next place and use the walk to recharge my mental energy.
Other favorite spots of mine are at home or in nature. But particularly at home can be a bit hit or miss, since there are also a fair number of distractions around. It’s quite tempting to make another coffee, see what’s in the fridge (even though I might have just checked 30 minutes earlier), or pick up one of the many unread books surrounding me.
One more particularly effective place, but maybe not the easiest (or cheapest) to go to on a regular basis, is on long distance flights. As I write these words I’m actually flying back to Tokyo from a conference I attended in Vancouver.
There are several reasons why I feel extremely productive on flights, but chief among them probably being the lack of internet connection. As unlikely as I know this is, I really hope on-flight internet will never become a common thing. And again it’s not just me. Several well known writers have actually admitted to booking business class return trips, just for the sake of working.
Just don’t make the mistake I have made on various occasions: having too much wine with the first meal. While I tell myself that it’ll help with creativity, it usually just leads to all the ambitions of getting a ton of work done suddenly being gone, the movie selection looking too tempting.
Getting on a plane to work is similar to another habit surprisingly common among top authors such as JK Rowling: Booking a hotel room for months at a time for the sole purpose of writing. Again, probably not something everyone can afford, certainly not a regular basis.
Besides my own experience, as well as some well reported habits of famous writers, I was curious about others’ thoughts and recommendations. So I surveyed my friends and mailing list subscribers.
The results were quite varied, but definitely showed some common trends.
In general, coffee shops seemed to be the top choice for many, for very similar reasons as my own.
This was closely followed by home, which seems appealing because you are completely free to design your working environment exactly the way you like it. But various people did note that it lacked the creative energy and bustle of a coffee shop.
Libraries, particularly university libraries, were also mentioned frequently for their quietness, as well as a sense of being surrounded by academic achievement.
And while many agreed that offices are the last place they’d go to if they really want to get stuff done, mentioning particularly the constant distractions, some even going so far as likening the 9–5 office life to “life in a cage”, a notable minority was actually defending the office as a good place for work.
However, in each case this came with some additional explanations, such as “blasting white noise or classical music”, in private booths, or “when internet is down”. Maybe these comments could give interesting clues towards better office design.
Not really tied to location, but coffee featured prominently in the responses, whether at home, in a coffee shop, or elsewhere. Also independent of location was the occasional mention of standing desks, particularly among designers.
The biggest source of disagreement seemed to be the amount of clutter. Some people seem to thrive in a completely distraction free environment, while others prefer a bit of creative chaos in the space surrounding them.
While my (very limited) survey showed that opinions on the ideal working spot vary, there is definitely one attribute that they all have in common, one that is unfortunately rarely found in the modern office, particularly open offices: A lack of attention grabbing distractions!
What’s wonderful given how much opinions and preferences differ is that it is becoming increasingly more feasibly to work from just about anywhere we want. Everyone can choose their favorite spot and get their work done just as effectively, often much more effectively, than if they were sitting in an office with their colleagues.
Where is your favorite place to work and how do you ensure you protect your attention? I would love to hear some more views and tips on this.