fastcompany:

Why You Should Work From A Coffee Shop, Even When You Have An Office

Fast Company contributor and founder of Family Records and GNTLMN.com Wesley Verhoeve makes a good case for working in coffee shops.

Why:

A change of environment stimulates creativity.

Even in the most awesome of offices we can fall into a routine, and a routine is the enemy of creativity. 

Fewer distractions.

Being surrounded by awesome team and officemates means being interrupted for water cooler chats and work questions. Being interrupted kills productivity. The coffee shop environment combines the benefit of anonymity with the dull buzz of exciting activity.

Community and meeting new people.

Meeting new people always provides me with new ideas, a different perspective at existing problems, or an interesting connection to a new person doing something awesome that inspires me. 

Tips:

Rotate coffee shops. 

Avoid the stifling feeling of routine you were trying to avoid in the first place.

Buy something. 

Coffee shop workers are awesome, and they’ll be awesome to you if you are a good customer. That hidden power plug will be revealed, an extra free refill will be given, an introduction will be made.

Placement.

Don’t sit near the door or the register, if you can avoid it. 

Power up.

Come with a full charge.

[Image: Flickr user Kyle Hale]

Where will you work today?

Basically someone wrote all the thoughts down which I’d already been thinking in my head for months. May I offer one other piece of advice: Bring a backup for the wi-fi, say a phone you can tether or a CLEAR spot. Nothing can ruin your desire to work more than an ineffective wireless connection. And definitely don’t work at the same place every day if you can avoid it. And buy something, you cheap skate. — Ernie @ SFB