Starbucks and Productivity

I often tell myself that tonight I am going to sit down and spend three hours learning the new cool technology I have been hearing about. Except I almost never spend any time actually learning. Why is it so hard to get going at home?

Not having a man cave – while I have enough space, I don’t have a dedicated spot in my house that would put me in the zone. I still manage to work from time to time but my concentration level is super low.

Too comfortable – this seems to contradict my first point, but being too comfortable is dangerous: constant access to snacks and a fridge, a cushy sofa that offers stress-free surfing experience, etc. These things detract you from getting things done. Comfort items are there for a reason: to decompress you after that 12-hour workday (welcome to the US and A), so  I don’t think we should get rid of them. However, they do negatively impact our productivity which is why we have them in the first place.

Being too BFS (breadth first search) – the information overload tells us that we should learn more about whatever topic we are working on. Have you ever wiki’ed some term just to find yourself 40 minutes later reading about some writer from South Africa? Meanwhile, you made zero progress.

Not physically ready – I sometimes wake up and short-circuit the whole preparation routine (I always brush my teeth though ). Staying in this half-ready condition is ultimately counterproductive since my brain does not get the right activation signals leaving me stagnating for the whole day sometimes.

The coffee shop atmosphere addresses a lot of the issues I mentioned above. While you don’t get a man cave, you get a table where you are not actively bothered by people. While coffee shops do strive to be comfortable, I still can’t take a nap on a sofa there. And you need to be somewhat presentable when you are in public. Finally, coffee helps with your alertness level, at least if you keep it under 4 espresso shots.

What do you think? Am I completely off? 

P.S.

As I mentioned I am just trying to start writing, so I am going for quantity over quality. I don’t think anyone actually reads this nonsense:)