Confession time: I have had every baked good at my local Waterstones cafe.
Multiple times.
The good news is, I can tell anyone what treat to choose if they are in the mood for something indulgent (toffee Biscoff cake, hands down) or simple (basic teacake—too dull for me, but for the sake of ranking all the treats on offer, I had to try it).
The bad news is...my wallet is significantly lighter since I decided that my new “office” was the back booth of Waterstones Cafe.
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d take to working outside my house. Cafes, especially ones attached to a three-floored book lovers' wonderland, are bound to be popular.
And it is.
It’s crowded.
It’s loud.
It smells of coffee (which I don’t drink).
But frankly…It’s perfect.
Don’t get me wrong—working at home is fantastic; it’s one of the reasons I became a freelance writer.
But it's also insanely distracting.
There is laundry that needs to be folded.
There is a dish sitting in the sink that needs to be cleaned.
There is an adorable dog lying on me that probably wants to play.
I need to get some work done, so I go into town and loiter around the fiction section until I spy that my favorite booth at Waterstones has been vacated. Then I speed walk over and throw my backpack down like a frantic child saving their friend a seat on the bus.
So why do we work best surrounded by strangers in a cafe despite feeling on edge during my previous 9-5 office jobs?
According to a New Scientist article, working in front of other people you don't know has what's called the "audience effect." This effect shows that we work harder when we have a small audience and generally perform better when there is competition.
There is also evidence to suggest that a moderate level of noise enhances creative production and leads to greater adoption of innovative products.
Maybe it's that I am surrounded by ambient noise—just loud enough to hear but not so loud that I am distracted.
Maybe I feel a sense of competition with the Uni students two tables away.
Maybe I am surrounded by books, and they make me happy.
Whatever the case, I will have to continue to suffer the pastries if it means that working in a busy cafe boosts my productivity.
I guess things could be worse.
So tell me, where is your happy workspace?
…and if anyone has any tips to help me kick my pastry habit, let me know. It’s becoming dire.
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