Quiet Places to Work and Places for Remote Work
If you’ve ever fantasized about the freedom of working from home, you likely see yourself wearing pajamas in bed, sipping coffee while typing away at your computer. When taking breaks, you play a round of Mario Kart, catch up with loved ones, or pet your cat.
As wonderful as that all might sound, working remotely from your home doesn’t always give the best results. If you do work from home, you might find it harder to focus, even if it’s empty. It’s just something about that familiar space that leads to naps, Netflix, and long periods of low productivity.
If you prefer a little more variety in your work environment, here are a few options to help you find the best place to work remotely:
Working Remotely from the Library
When you need to be focused and distraction-free, libraries are one of the best places to work remotely. Libraries are often the some of the quietest place to work outside of home. The library cliché is the authoritative “SHHH!” heard coming from librarians and bookworm patrons alike, so expect an enforced level of peace and quiet you find few other places. There are often even private rooms you can check out for sustained focus and is a great place to telecommute.
When researching, you also will be in one of the best hubs of information, outside of your phone of course. Typically, all you need is a library card to access unlimited hours of free wi-fi and other resources.
Remote Work in a Bar
Are you the type of person that gets invigorated by the energy of other people? If so, then working remotely in a bar may be your cup of Long Island Iced Tea! Sipping on a beer while people watching on a patio may just be the catalyst that brings on that next great idea.
People that are easily distracted or have focus-heavy work may find this environment too busy, however. So, if you find yourself having too much fun, and becoming unproductive, this one probably isn’t the best place for you to work remotely.
Remote Work at a Café
If it’s quiet and has wi-fi, working remotely from a coffee shop can be a caffeine-fueled creative experience. Coffee shops are the digital nomad’s go-to when it comes to remote work. In fact, there are many coffee shops specifically catering to web sleuths and remote workers alike called internet cafes. Working remotely from an internet café is the way to go, since often they can have a slightly less distracting, office-atmosphere. Telecommunication may be hard in a busy café, so finding a quiet spot is better for voice or video.
While you may want to look for a calmer caffeinated corner, don’t discount the call of common connection. Internet cafes can be a hub of networking with people as well as a great place to work!
Working Remotely in a Bookstore
Like a library, working in a bookstore is often silent and promotes sustained focus. For one reason, they often have quiet reading spaces you can use to work in where the ambient noise doesn’t amount to more than the occasional turning of a page. Bookstores will sometimes offer coffee and snacks as well. Consequently, this makes working in bookshops a great compromise between a café and a library.
Work Remotely from a Park
The generally quiet and refreshing outdoor ambience of parks provide the remote worker with a nice place to focus on creative endeavors. Levels of distraction depend highly on the park itself, and where you decide to work.
In addition, one downside to parks is that wi-fi can be hard to come by in park areas, but you can remedy this by using your phone as mobile hotspot if it is supported. Telecommuting over video may be hard to do at a park because of public traffic, but it’s possible at the right venue.
Additionally, parks are a great way to interact with people and get a taste for the local culture, just make sure the weather is going to be nice. Rain and laptops are not a good combination!
Remote Work at a Heritage Site
If you are a sucker for novelty, and can deal with background noise from tourists, you might find that bringing your laptop to a local heritage site to be invigorating. For example, working in a castle, historical building, ancient architecture, or landmark could provide the inspiration and scenery to get you in flow. Some remote work sites are more private than others and you may find yourself a nook in a cultural space that ignites that feeling of exploration.
Wi-fi availability is hit or miss in these areas so you may need to set up a mobile hotspot or wait for a more convenient time to upload work.
Writing an article in a castle or editing a video in an ancient temple make for awesome stories, but always be sure to adhere to the site rules and respect cultural values.
Museums and Working Remotely
Working remotely in a museum can be a quiet place to work with minimal background ambience. If you don’t mind paying an occasional entrance or parking fee you can let yourself be inspired by art and history in these intellectual havens. There are often rest areas with benches or seats that make for excellent workspaces.
Many museums offer free Wi-fi and some offer food and other amenities as well to make museums a great place to work remotely.
Nothing gets the creative juices flowing more than typing away on your laptop with a Tyrannosaurus skull glaring at you from the distance or being in the presence of an artistic masterpiece from an age long gone.
Great Co-Working Spaces
For those that enjoy working with others, in a focused environment with guaranteed wi-fi, co-working spaces are available. These are becoming more common as time goes by, especially in digital nomad hubs. It turns out that a lot of people don’t want to work alone, so when several people work together in a shared space it can be just the right arrangement.
You would be sharing workspace with entrepreneurs, startups, freelancers, and many others. This can prove to be invaluable for making connections, getting new ideas, or just having some fun during the workday.
If you are distracted easily, a dedicated office or private desk would be a better option. The price of a dedicated desk or office can sometimes be enough to through some remote workers off, so be aware of alternative options such as desk-sharing.
Desk-Sharing
This involves renting a desk in an office space, which you can do by the day or the week. For instance, if you are only going to work remotely in an area for a bit, this would be a great option, or if you just want to try out co-working spaces.
To sum up, if you feel like you’d be better off in a more corporate environment, then you can do so this way without committing to any major fees.
Remote Working at College Campuses
Think about it, these places were built for learning and productivity. Just because you aren’t attending classes, it doesn’t mean you can’t hang out on campus and get some work done. For example, working remotely on a university campus gives you many indoor and outdoor options for quiet places to work, some of which don’t require any kind of student id. If you can get the Wi-Fi login from a student or on a guest pass, you are all set.
However, if you are going to be staying in an area for a while, another option would be to enroll in a cheap course to get access to all the facilities that are protected by an access card. In short, this would simply make things easier, but it does come with a financial cost.
These are just a few of the options available if you want to mix up your work environment and get out of the house and increase your productivity. The happier you are with your environment, the better work you will produce.
If you’d like to learn more about how to work remotely check out my free training at https://www.digitalnomad.com/training/.
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