So with the last big project I have been working from about 6:00AM ish till around 9:30PM each day with breaks for food and sleep. This has been going on for about a month. While it is a lot of work it is not that crazy as I’m getting sleep and food.
Since I work from a home office most of the time I have been needing a change of pace and have been going to Starbucks about 3 times a day for some coding sessions. I head over when they open 6:00AM weekdays and 7:30AM weekends. I work till about 8:15AM and then head home and grab some breakfast. Once back at home I commit code to SVN deal with emails and work till around 11:00ish.
I then head back to SB and work for a few more hours with the last session starting around 5:00 or 6:00PM. What is funny is that I’m not alone. It seems a lot of people are heading to SB (and I’m sure other places) to work during the day. The weird part is that I the reason that I do this is that the noise and bustle at the store helps me concentrate and get into a coding zone. A lot of people would think the opposite but the static really helps. What I have been finding when I ask other people that I see working is that they find the same thing. It seems that this is a common reason to get out of the home office (or any office really). I really think that the idea of common office places could really take off if they were more open and easy to find.
I think that Starbucks could open “other office” stores that cater to wifi, power outlet people. I even think that people would pay a small fee for this service. Nothing crazy but still I think that it would generate cash and loyalty. Just supply decent small tables, lots of power outlets, fast wifi and some meeting type table and I think that they could do well in a few places.
Well I have to get back to work but just wanted to comment on this while it was fresh in my mind.
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Too bad there’s not a good co-working spot near your place…
(http://coworking.pbwiki.com/)
I think that coworking would be cool but I also like the mix of no techy people (weird coming from a geek). Don’t get me wrong I think that it would be cool and do not always like corporate places I just would like a nice high end coffee house with kick-ass joe.
Funny I did not know that the guys closed IP.
There used to be a little coworking space near you named Indoor Playground, however, it seemed to drift more into low cost office space rather than true coworking. We’re still, 3+ years in, trolling around for space to setup coworking in guelph. I think we’ll have something up and running this year and the intent is to get something like you describe Jaimie where it’s a real mix of people and talents.
Cool then you can open one up in Toronto for us
I have talked about this a lot but a Club Links for workers (Wifi Links) I think would work. Just would cost a ton to setup properly.
Basically you pay fee and get access to all Wifi Link places. Then the idea would be to set them up in town all over the place so that if you travel (or wanted a reason to) you would know that you have a place that will have what you want.
Kinda like Starbucks and Timmy’s. On a road trip you know when you see those signs that you can get what you want. Yes I know that this is a bad thing also as the charm of local places is lost (Jet Fuel in Cabbage town feel). But you get my idea.
I know that if you setup one properly in cottage country you would have a steady supply of people during the summer who do not want it at the cottage but would like to be able to hit the local town for a few days and extend the summer vacation.
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