Writing Space

I’m confident that part of it, too, is psychological, because going to Starbucks to write is a forced change of routine. It forces me out of the rut of staring at my screen playing freecell and gives me no other option than to write. I get up in the morning, do my morning routine, read my blogs, and then I need something to push me to the next stage of the day, when I actually get stuff done. If I don’t, I find myself often stuck in a weird limbo of not being able to motivate myself to actually work.

The journey to Starbucks — packing up the supplies I’ll need and taking the 7-minute walk — is also a time in which I’m thinking about what to write. My mind has nothing else to do, so I start composing in my head, and — by the time I have my coffee and sit down — I can immediately start putting words on the page.

Finally, for some reason, I’ve always found it easier to compose on paper rather than a computer. Sitting in Starbucks forces me to do just that.

And so I go there, with a specific writing goal in mind. Once I’ve accomplished that, I can head home again for the afternoon — I may get more writing done in my primary workspace, or maybe I’ll just type up what I wrote that morning. Or I’ll do housework, or surf the Internet for research or inspiration.

I use different work spaces for different purposes, but ultimately, it’s the combination of the two that lets me be the most productive.

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