7 Tips for Freelancing at Starbucks (and Borders, and B&N)
Last year I rented an outside office in downtown Concord, NH. I loved it, but when I cut my work week down to two days in August of 2009, I realized it wasn’t worth $300 per month to spend a mere eight days in my office every month. So I sublet the office to a nice yoga instructor, and now I work from home again.
If you’re like me, sometimes you just have to get out of your home office (or dining room, or living room) and work at a freelancer-friendly place like Starbucks, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or a local café or bookstore. But while these are great for a change of view, they can also create major hassles for busy freelancers. Sometimes I go to Borders and all is fine and dandy, and other times I go there and end up sitting next to a lip-smacking loud-eater, getting approached by every weirdo in the store, and having to fight for a table near an electrical outlet. So I compiled this list of advice on how to get the most out of your visits to your “office away from home.”
1. Get there early. If you get to the café or bookstore at noon, forget it — every freelancer, telecommuter, and computer-game addict in town will have commandeered the tables near the outlets. If I get to the store by 10 am, I can usually find a good spot.
2. Bring a cord. Sometimes all the tables by outlets will be taken, but the tables that are almost-but-not-quite near outlets will be free. I always bring the extension cord that came with my Mac so I can sit a little further away from an outlet. If you do this, just be sure that you’re not stringing your cord halfway across the floor; you don’t want to trip up any innocent old ladies.
Also, I hope it’s kosher to pull out a tip from the comments. Thursday Bram of the Constructively Productive blog left a great comment: “I make a point of going beyond just bringing a cord: I bring a plug that turns your average outlet into a charging station. It’s got a couple of extra outlets, as well as USB slots for charging phones and such. A power strip will serve the same purpose. This way, you can always get extra folks plugged in, making you a favorite at the coffee shop and making it easier to find a seat.” Thanks, Thursday!
3. Plug your ears. For some reason, I seem to be a weirdo magnet — and my local Borders has a lot of weirdos. One time, a drunk man sat at my table while I was clearly working and started babbling about his “&^$# VW van.” Another time, a young man dressed like a caricature of a gang member sat down at the chair next to me and regaled me with stories about how he was thrown in the clink for beating the $#!^ out of some other guy. He also recited lines from A Clockwork Orange. That’s one of my favorite movies, but I really don’t need some freak whispering “The old ‘in and out’” in my ear over and over.
Another writer suggested I wear a pair of headphones to deter anyone who’s thinking of making themselves comfortable at my table and bending my ear. This works on airplanes — why not in cafés and bookstores while you’re trying to work? If you find music distracting, you don’t need to listen to it; no one will know that you’re just listening to the sweet sounds of silence. (By the way, the headphones also block out the sounds of the loud eaters you’ll inevitably find yourself sitting by.)
4. Buy something, dammit! Starbucks, Borders, and so on don’t make money when you siphon off their electricity and don’t actually, you know, buy anything there. Get yourself an occasional iced mocha, and buy your books and magazines at the store you spend all your time at. It’s only fair.
5. Sit right. Not only do you want to find a table near an outlet, but you want to be sure not to sit with your back to a window. While it may seem fine at 10 am, eventually the sun will shine in there and your computer screen will be reduced to a low-contrast visual nightmare. Those flimsy roller shades they have don’t help much, either.
Also, try to sit with your back to a wall instead of to the middle of the café. I learned this lesson after a run-in with a regular patron my husband and I now call the “Laptop Lurker.” You don’t want people to be able to read what’s on your screen over your shoulder, especially if you’re typing in passwords!
6. Bring a jacket. That’s right, even in August. These places tend to blast the AC in the summer, so even if you’re wearing shorts and a t-shirt outside, you may find yourself shivering in the café. I always kick myself when I forget to being a light sweater or jacket.
7. Save your table. Have to pee? Need a chai? Don’t worry, you don’t necessarily need to pack up your belongings and lose your precious table near an outlet (unless you live in a particularly crime-ridden area). People who use their computers in cafés are always happy to watch each other’s valuables during a pee or drink run. Just make it snappy; the guy watching your computer has better things to do than suspiciously eye every person who approaches your table. And don’t forget to say thanks, and return the favor! [lf]
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May 24, 2010 Advice, Observations, productivity, Writing
Great tips. Usually when I work out it’s either just sitting outside or at the library, but there’s a Panera over there I like to hit once in a while. And I never even thought about the “Laptop Lurker” types! Thanks for the reminder.
I make a point of going beyond just bringing a cord: I bring a plug that turns your average outlet into a charging station. It’s got a couple of extra outlets, as well as USB slots for charging phones and such. A power strip will serve the same purpose. This way, you can always get extra folks plugged in, making you a favorite at the coffee shop and making it easier to find a seat.
Linda:
Good timing with this one. I was actually thinking of heading to Borders today
Advice heeded. There is nothing more frustrating (for me anyway) than NOT getting a table near an outlet. I don’t mind using my battery power, but time is limited then.
All good points.
Steve
Thanks for your comments, Steve and Jenn! And Thursday, I hope it was kosher to do this…I like your suggestion so much that I added it to the post (giving you credit of course!). Thank you.
As someone who writes almost exclusively in coffee shops, this post was spot on. Great point about buying something, and I also make an effort to tip and get to know the baristas I see over and over again. It pays dividends in goodwill. Great thought about the earphones. I don’t get too many weirdos at Borders, but our Panera Bread is the Bermuda Triangle of creepy men.
Ooh, I never even considered the “laptop lurker”. I need to start thinking more like a voyeur. A note on the headphones thing… Back when I was a flight attendant the air marshalls almost always wore headphones with no music playing. (They’re not allowed to do anything that might distract them from their jobs.) By making themselves “unavailable” they could avoid the personal questions thrown at them by the chatterbox in the next seat.
Lisa, great point to always be sure to tip the baristas.
Heather, how interesting! So that tip has the approval of the air safety system!
Love the tips! Depending on the type of writing I am doing, all of the characters at the Barnes & Noble (where I regularly go) can be pretty interesting and give me additional ideas. When I’m doing any type of business writing, it’s annoying so the headphones tip will certainly prove to be useful.
I love this.
A couple more tips—
Sign up on Facebook for the shop’s page and tell them thanks.
Write a positive review of the venue– it is a two-for. Creates good will and it a great writing warm up.
Occassionally meet someone for work– another two-for. It promotes the venue and it is another way to get work done.
Kelley
I’d be curious to hear an owner’s point of view on the customers who consider the shop their office.
Eight days a month isn’t excessive, but I wonder if there are some writers who they wish would “get a room!”
Thanks for your comments!
Kelley, good tips…I think I’ll sign up for Starbucks’ FB page!
Great article, Linda.
Are you still in Concord? If so, stop by the Granite Candy Shoppe. Their chocolate covered pretzels are to die for.
Ha ha, we walked there with our toddler the other day to get some ice cream, and when we got there we realized we had both forgotten our wallets!
[...] 7 Tips for Freelancing at Starbucks (and Borders, and B&N) – Not that I’d go to Starbucks. But I might try a local organic coffee place if I wasn’t notoriously bad about working out of the house. I’m easily distracted and so I read this post to get some tips. The post did help, if only for the advice about how NOT to be a weirdo magnet. [...]
Thanks for the tips. I frequent coffee houses whenever I can (although since I found out I’m pregnant and got a new car and car payment, I haven’t gone) and these tips are great.
I also try and make friendly with the baristas. Every house I’ve frequented has come to know me, my orders, and everything, to the point of bringing me my readily prepared drink when I walk in–they know I’m coming! I make conversation with them, tell them I’m working on (they seem really interested and ask some neat questions) and ask them what’s going on with them. I know everyone’s name and work schedule, and am sure not to work to hard and to keep up my patronage with such good company.
Also, on a totally separate note, of the reasons I like to work in coffee houses is to network and sneak in a little marketing. I try and bring a surge protector to share with others or at least alert incoming businessmen of where the available outlets are. I keep a business card nicely taped to my laptop or some kind of vinyl and I stay hard at work: these people always ask me what I’m up to, we strike up a conversation and they’re my client or someone they know is in a week.
Boy, do I miss the coffee house!
~~Thanks, Renegade Writer~~:
It’s good to have validation on a lot of the points where I’m realizing, I had come to a pretty similar conclusion! For sure, each coffeehouse has a different “personality,” and it’s tricky to figure out when/where/how to sit, what to bring/wear — in order to be productive, have a great workflow, get along with fellow coffeehousers, and give props to the superior coffeehouse you’ve found.
I wanted to add that I always bring my phone charger with me, as well. Invariably there’s some things I can only do on my iPhone (not my laptop)…and I find it’s great not to use any of the battery power while I’m there. In other words, treat your smartphone like a laptop. Conserve that battery. Buy/bring that extra charger. Actually, I recommend always having the charger in your bag. This has come to be my number one life support. Because, on the fly without your laptop, via your smartphone, in a pinch, email/websites/communications can be checked. Lengthy typing can be tricky, but, invariably some short ideas and paragraphs can be composed, if it comes down to it.
Another point: when you’re in a busy coffeehouse where seats are at a premium (unlike the one I’m in now), that seat where you put your messenger bag, jacket, books, etc., is for sure going to be asked for. So you might as well carefully arrange everything on the table or next to you on your bench or hang your stuff from your one seat you’re sitting on– and push the empty chair to another table (far away from you!). You know it’s going to be asked for! So you might as well release it early — on your terms — so you can continue to work with as little interruption as possible.
As far as the lurker and conversation types, headphones are an excellent idea. Always carry a couple of spare cheap ones in your bag for disguise and for just-to-have-a-spare purposes. So when someone attempts conversation too much, you can always just say you are listening to a client transcription that is critical to have notes on today for them! It will be true no matter what — because when you are a renegade writer, everybody and everything is a “Client”, and nothing doesn’t fit this scenario, especially if you mean business to get the writing at hand IN PROCESS! Of course, by the time, one has to come up with this type of explanation, it’s fairly clear that the lurker-conversationalist probably isn’t going to change her/his habits anytime soon. Just take pride in the fact that the reason the crazies are so drawn to you is that clearly you are emanating a very alluring Work energy which feels energizing to be around. …Unfortunately, this sometimes means that the battle becomes a matter of who can act unperturbed the longest — you or those more than slightly disturbed. Guess who wins. (You are, after all, at least *slightly* disturbed, otherwise you wouldn’t be writing so renegade, right?!)
I was once in a Village coffeeshop in the evening when my apartment was being used for a Building meeting and I had nowhere else to go. This particular coffeehouse (ah, some of you must know the central one I’m talking about…!), swear to god, was inhabited with characters straight from Lanford Wilson’s “Balm in Gilead”. Nervous tics, people lookin’ at you, peeps waiting for “something” or payment for something; euphemisms or details I couldn’t (yet) incorporate into my writings… I was stared at and had a running commentary about me for over an hour. I couldn’t get my screenplay up and working and I was trying over and over as well as periodically trying to get my music program up so I could listen to music and, as well, get a twitter post up and nothing nothing could I get to work — and through it all, through my headphones, I actually heard this group evaluating me (and in all fairness, others, too; they examined absolutely everybody in the coffeehouse!) as I tried to work through the commentary and I could hear that the group had decided — there was a debate about it — that I wasn’t really “working.” No, not at all, they had decided. God they were eerily accurate. But God was I trying…! Ah, coffeeshops. Choose wisely.
Thanks, Anthony! Sounds like you could write a blog post on this topic yourself! I have to say, I’ve never had anyone judge me at a cafe within my earshot…ugh!
Panera Bread is my sanctuary! They generally have plenty of space so they don’t mind how long you stay. Coffee and hot tea are free refills for as long as you stay in the store. And you can do your part by buying a tasty lunch. My favorite is the broccoli and cheddar soup in a bread bowl! But if Panera Bread isn’t an option, I like the good old fashioned library too.
P.S., I love their potato soup!