Ask HN: Where do you prefer to get work done?

6 points by potential 16 years ago | 5 comments

Hi,

I am a hacker and a long-time lurker of HN (Since 'Startup News'!). In a few weeks I will have a considerable amount of time away from my workplace. I set it aside to allow me to work on personal projects.

I have a simple question: When working on your own projects, where do you prefer to work? I find that the environment I am in has a great effect on my productivity, for example I struggle to get work done at home.

jacquesm 16 years ago |

It's not so much 'where' as much as 'when' for me.

Home is fine, it's the disturbances that get me (cell phones, tv's, neighbours, other people and so on). I work best at night because of that.

mbrubeck 16 years ago |

The bus is a terrible place to work. Usually I prefer to read or listen to music/podcasts. But when I'm obsessed enough with a project to work on it during my commute, I often get quite a bit done just because I have no internet to distract me. And when I know I'll be working on the bus, I make sure I have already studied any documentation I need (and saved a copy to my laptop) and have a reasonable idea of the next 30- to 60-minute task I can accomplish. So it forces me to plan and prepare well, too.

samaparicio 16 years ago |

Have you tried dropping by a coworking space?

tjr 16 years ago |

I live about a twenty minute drive from where I went to college; I still find the campus to be a good place to focus.

dnsworks 16 years ago |

When I briefly lived in Seattle, I loved to work in the coffee shops there. They were idea with lots of tables, great wifi, and tons of power ports. They came in two varieties:

So quiet that you can hear yourself think So loud that everything turns into white noise

Since moving home to San Francisco, I've found the coffee shops to be quite lacking as a place to work.. Probably by design since the cost of business here is twice that of Seattle for cafes. So I work on my balcony when the weather is beautiful. Sometimes I'll take my laptop to the Atrium in the new mall on Market St., or to one of the hacker or shared worker spaces. I like having other people around who aren't trying to talk to me when I work.

However, since purchasing a very comfortable Kinesis keyboard and a 24" monitor, I'm finding it harder and harder to work on my 13.3" laptop.