Guest Post: Working From A Coffee Shop: Pros and Cons

We writers love the idea of being location independent. In fact, working from anywhere is a cherished ideal. Many of us spend our time hanging out at the coffee shop, but is it all that it’s cracked up to be or is it an ideal that’s lost its shine?

Getting Online

Let’s look at the cons first. When you work from a coffee shop or anywhere, you need a great Wi-Fi connection – not all coffee shops have that. They may SAY they do, but when you come to use it you might find that the signal drops regularly, causing frustration and getting in the way of your work. And how easy is it to get connected, anyway? Sometimes you have to type in so many passwords and visit so many signup web pages that it hardly seems worth it. If your local coffee shop has those problems, then you might as well stay home – or go somewhere else.

And then there’s the furniture. If you’re perching your laptop on a small, rickety table and praying that your coffee won’t spill on your keyboard and fry it, then that’s probably not the right coffee shop for you. And background noise is also a factor. Although we writers like atmosphere, sometimes we have to concentrate and hearing other people shouting out their orders or having conversations about their relationships can be really, really distracting.

Health Issues

Working from a coffee shop can be really bad for your weight, too, because while your mind is expanding, so is your rear. The reason? All those cups of sweet coffee (mochas, frappes and so on) and the delicious sweet treats that go along with them. You will need a will of iron to sit in a coffee shop all day without having something. You might tell yourself you will have a salad, but will you really? I know I’d struggle with willpower when it came down to the nitty-gritty.

Sparking Creativity

But working from a coffee shop isn’t all bad. For instance, as solitary writers we can become chained to our desks and never see anything. You would be surprised how a change of scene can refresh your ideas. I forget who said ‘all human life is there’ but it’s certainly true of a coffee shop. When you’re stuck for a word or a plot direction, sit up and look around and you’ll see something that will spark your imagination and increase your creative flow.

Room to Breathe

If you have shoehorned your home office into a small section of the dining room, then getting out to a coffee shop might actually allow you to have more space to spread your stuff out. If you can still find a bookstore with a great coffee area, hog two tables so you can have your notes and coffee on one and your laptop on another – it will feel positively luxurious. Plus you can always go and do some ‘research’ by looking in a book. Y’know, the old fashioned way.

Location Independent

Finally, there’s one more great reason to work from a coffee shop – to prove that you can work from anywhere. If you have all your stuff with you (try using web tools to make this process easier), then you truly are a location independent writer and the next time you want to work on the road, you will know you can!

Sharon Hurley Hall has almost 25 years of experience writing professionally – as a journalist, an academic writer, a blogger, a ghost writer and an online copy writer. She has been running Get Paid To Write Online since 2005 to help other writers improve and build sustainable and successful writing careers.  You can also find Sharon on Twitter and Google+.