I hit the jackpot in November when I started working from a coffee shop that’s walkable from home. Not unusual considering I live in central London where pigeons are outnumbered by places to buy a flat white, but get this:
The stools have backrests (I’m not 21 anymore)
I can arrive at 1pm and find a seat with an empty plug socket within reach
There’s usually space to sit in the window, so I can observe passers-by like I’m undercover in MI5 (I’ve seen Slow Horses and could not love it more)
The counter is unusually high, so my neck isn’t contorted like a snowdrop when I look down at my laptop.
As a self-employed person with no space for a proper desk at home and no money for the WeWork on my street; this is holy grail shit.
There’s no Wi-Fi so it’s not without flaws but aren’t imperfections charming? I hear Oscar Isaac is only 5’8 and I’m not judging. Plus, I can make peace with burning through my data allowance if it means I get to leave my flat for a few hours a day.
I started to feel a bit sheepish last week when I racked up more hours than some of the staff, so I asked the manager if my relentless presence was OK. Not only was I assured he didn't mind, but he came over to wish me a good weekend before he left. I feel truly welcomed into the fold!
Other things have happened since I started working from the coffee shop (now exclusively referred to as ‘my office’ when I’m telling my boyfriend where I am).
Firstly, I bought a pair of AirPods and say what you like about headphones making us all antisocial but they’ve been game changers for me. I’m obsessed with specific sounds (any fellow misophones reading?) and after too many close encounters with cretins playing music or videos from their phone speaker (there’s a special place in hell, etc), my boyfriend convinced me to buy AirPods and keep them in my pocket in case of Very Annoying People.
It seems ludicrous that I didn’t own them before but despite how things can look on Instagram, the truth is I rarely leave our flat. I spend most of my working days at home alone, listening to background music on the Sonos.
The first time I wore my new headphones to walk to work, I was grinning in the street and probably looked a bit unhinged. It felt like the scene from 500 Days of Summer where Joseph Gordon-Levitt dances along to Hall & Oates. People didn’t annoy me anymore as I couldn’t hear them annoying me. Plus, my sense of impending doom is reduced by a good 72% when I’ve got headphones in. The logic makes no sense but when I can hear everything going on around me, my hyper-vigilant brain takes me down a path of potential death or unexpected violence (I was attacked in the street at random when I was a young teen, so it doesn’t take a therapist to work this one out). Anyway, now I’m too happy listening to ‘90s film soundtracks to notice what anyone else is doing. I’m probably not built for city life in all honesty but there we go, that’s what headphones are for.
On my way home from the coffee shop yesterday, a woman ran past me clearly late for something. Only she wasn’t running – she was trotting hilariously like a horse in a dressage competition, using an elevated stepping motion to hurdle over tiny invisible fences. On any other day, this would have made me smile, but since Blink-182 What’s My Age Again happened to be playing and I was busy re-living my youth, I found myself accidentally chuckling out loud at the equine runner.
All roads lead back to the coffee shop and if I hadn’t adopted it as my office, I wouldn’t have bought the headphones and I wouldn’t feel unreasonably jolly or (depending on the music) immersed in a cinematic moment while I’m just walking home in the rain. The AirPods are also the reason I can now tolerate rowdy groups of lads-lads-lads out on their drunken benders without wanting to punch them. I feel renewed!
Fun things happen inside the coffee shop too. I live in an area jam-packed with corporate offices, so I’m generally inches away from various ‘meetings’ where a couple of people in blazers sit and bitch about their colleagues for half an hour. I’ve also been the fourth wheel in three different job interviews so far. There’s nothing like the awkwardness of being the only other person in the room who isn’t part of the recruitment process. I always make a big show of putting my AirPods in out of politeness (but don’t actually play any music, obviously).
Last week I joined the interview of a 26-year-old recruitment consultant who was going for a more senior role in his existing company. He was asked quickfire questions by a pair of gobby hiring managers, one of whom dropped the F-bomb as if she was in the interrogation room on SAS Who Dares Wins. I discovered that he’s currently on £200k a year and he was asked if he feels old at 26 (what the hell?). He said yes, he does feel old. I’m over 35, so I must have looked decrepit sitting there in no make-up, under a downlight. Things seemed to take a turn for the worse when they asked what motivated him to apply for this new role, to which he replied “I just want to make loads of money”. Tell it like it is, my friend.
The most incredible thing about the coffee shop is I actually get stuff done there. I write articles for House & Garden, I write Substack posts like this one, I research things, I edit photos, I have meetings and I even occasionally reply to emails. It’s a place where I’ve contemplated some of my secret work goals and wondered how I could make them a reality. I can never get into that headspace when I’m in my flat.
Maybe I’ll write about this sometime but I can’t work from home. I loathe working from home. I do it through necessity but mentally, I just cannot. I need to be in a workspace that isn’t mine (so I don’t rearrange the furniture as a way to distract myself) and I need the motivating power of body doubling. If you’re not familiar, body doubling is a productivity strategy used by people who focus best when they have the pressure of someone else there. You don’t even have to know the other person. It works for me and I’d say there’s no better pressure than being present at someone else’s job interview. Browsing Google for photos of the Frasier cast while they reel off their strengths and weaknesses – it’s a thrill!
Ever since I stumbled through the door that first afternoon back in November (and whinged about there being no filter coffee left), I’ve started to suspect that my new office might save my sanity this year. As soon as I can afford a proper workspace I’ll get out of their hair but for now, being in that room with my headphones in, sipping a lukewarm coffee very strategically so I don’t need to pee too often; it feels like I can achieve anything.
UPDATE
Since I published this, the coffee shop where I worked (it’s part of a chain) has rolled out a strict company-wide laptop ban, so I can’t actually work there anymore and now I’m on the lookout for a new spot.
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There’s a Spotify playlist called Living in a 90s Romcom and it’s spectacular to listen to all day, every day as it’s about 18 hours long - highly recommend if you need a new 90s film playlist!
You won’t believe this, but I am sat in ‘my office’ aka my favourite coffee shop writing a substack called ‘a love letter to my favourite coffee shop’ with my earphones in, but playing no music. It has a little snug with a sofa in and is my absolutely favourite place to write. I get so lonely at home, so start almost every day with a couple of hours here to write with a coffee. Wishing you a lovely weekend