Impulse

I am way more pro­duc­tive sit­ting in my favorite cof­fee shop, Zoka, than I ever am at home. I know it’s cliche — a writer bent over his lap­top, fever­ishly writ­ing; a cold, half-empty cof­fee cup nearby, for­got­ten — but it’s com­pletely true. Having come to appre­ci­ate this, I’ve decided on the qual­i­ties of the per­fect office:

• Relaxed atmos­phere — it’s warm and comfy. I can pad around in my socks like it was my liv­ing room — even if it isn’t.
• Crappy net access — The net only works well enough that if I really want to find some­thing, my desire dom­i­nat­ing my patience, I can find it. The net mustn’t work well enough to do the usual stream-of-consci…oh look a butterfly…ousness surf­ing nor should email & IM func­tion. Useful, but not distracting.
• Warm drinks & sug­ary munchies pre­pared for me — cre­ativ­ity requires lots and lots of choco­late. I’m pretty sure sci­en­tists have proven it — or are at least intensely research­ing it. Plus, I don’t have to be the one to remem­ber that my tea has been boil­ing for an hour now.
• Gently bustling — peo­ple com­ing and going pro­vide just enough dis­trac­tion to jos­tle my brain when it’s stuck, but not enough to deter me. It makes me feel like part of a tribe. I feel the sooth­ing pres­ence of other peo­ple; the staff watch­ing over us; Jane Goodall, ever vigilant.
• No other dis­trac­tions — with the cell phone turned off, the phone doesn’t ring; nobody knocks on the door; I don’t see a thou­sand other projects to fin­ish or garbage cans to empty.
• Human-folk con­ve­niently avail­able for small talk — after an hour of mani­a­cally pound­ing through an idea, noth­ing is as sooth­ing as a lit­tle light ban­ter before the next wave.
• Cool sound­track — just sur­pris­ing enough to be enter­tain­ing, just quiet enough to not distract.
• A bath­room a few steps away — say no more.
• The need to be pro­duc­tive — I’ve bring only what I need for this project and this project alone. I come with a spe­cific goal (which itself may be the real rea­son for my pro­duc­tiv­ity gain). No dis­trac­tions. If I truly want to relax & waste time, it’s more com­fort­able to do that elsewhere.

Now if I could only fig­ure out how to attach a cof­fee shop to a photo studio…

Related posts:

1. The per­fect story