7 Tips To Make Working From Cafes A Lot Of Fun!

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Cafe working? Here's how to make your stay highly productive. (#4 is my fave!)One of my favorite things about internet marketing is the ability to work from anywhere.

It’s so fun to travel and see all kinds of different things

Right now I’m sitting at a Starbucks in Brooklyn, NY. On my right, there’s a man trying to seduce a girl from Amsterdam. On the left, there’s a guy dancing by himself to the Beatles. It’s totally random and I love it. :)

I really like working from cafes. It’s so much funner than sitting at home and working by yourself. I feel that gets lonely, tiring, and stale after a while.

And now that I’ve been traveling/working for so long, I’ve honed in some “best practices” to make traveling and working as seamless as possible.

Here are some of my favorite tips:

1. Bring a surge protector to cafes. Usually cafes have limited outlet space. If you bring your own surge protector you can share the outlets with other people.

This is especially helpful if:

a) All the outlets are taken when you get to a cafe

b) You’ve been using an outlet for a while and feel bad (or maybe that’s just me :)).

(Special thinks to the beautiful Jaime Mintun for this tip!)

2. If you’re in an area you’ve never been in before and don’t have your own wifi, it’s very helpful to have phone apps that tell you which places nearby do. I have both the Starbucks app and this app.

Between both of them, you can often find places that have internet connection. However, I do recommend having your own, which brings me to…

3.  Have your own wifi. I recommend the Clear online plan. It’s $50/month and you has excellent coverage.

I love this because:

a) A lot of times, seats at cafes with wifi fill up. Yesterday I went to 3 different cafes that had absolutely no seats available. I ended up at one cafe that did NOT offer wifi. The smart people who had their own wifi were working there. :)

b) Having your own internet connection is super helpful at hotels when you’d otherwise have to pay $15/day for internet.

c) You can use this while traveling. When I was driving cross country and and had time sensitive deadlines, there were times I’d pull over in the middle of nowhere, get some work done from my car, and then start driving again.

I like this particular service because despite the horrific sales page, it works really well (better than the Verizon I used to have), is very cheap, and you don’t have to pay for an initial USB if you get a refurbished one (which works fine).

4. Go healthy. Working from cafes doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your health. I often order a healthy drink (decaf tea or water) and then bring snacks with me. Sometimes I have a healthy bar in my purse or something in a ziplock bag, like carrots or sliced cucumber.

5. Plan out your day while waiting for your order. I like to make a list of everything I want to do the night before I work, and then while I wait for my order, I create a timed to-do list.

For example, today’s is:

7:50 – 8:10 am: Download plugin

8:10- 8:30 am Convert links

8:30- 9:30 am Fix all Happy Copywriting thank you pages

9:30- 10:30 am Write blog post

…and so forth.

Here’s today’s full list:

6. Use Dropbox. This is AWESOME for syncing all your files together. I have all my files on Dropbox so I can access them from my computer, my iPad, and my iPhone.

Sometimes if I find myself waiting for something (like if I’m out to lunch and waiting for my food), I start journaling or mindmapping. (I’m kind of restless sometimes.)

It’s so nice to be able to pull out my iPhone, grab my 60 day plan from Dropbox, and then create ideas around different things on my plan.

7. Outsource as much as possible. Working from cafes is really great when you want to be creative. If you outsource as many un-fun tasks as possible, you can focus on only the things that light you up.

So there you have it… 7 of my favorite work-from-cafe tips! I hope this helps, because working from cafes definitely makes life a LOT more fun. :)

And what are YOUR thoughts? Do you have another idea I haven’t mentioned? Please feel free to share below!

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BONUS! Find this helpful? To download this post as a PDF, click here!

0 thoughts on “7 Tips To Make Working From Cafes A Lot Of Fun!”

  1. Typo – meant to say “their” coverage. If you can, please fix it. Otherwise send a not back to me to fix it. Jeez, I’m an editor for crying out loud. LOL

    Reply
  2. Hey Rachel, As always, very helpful hints. I looked at Clear and was underwhelmed with there coverage. Here’s a hot tip: Virgin Mobile – which works off of the Sprint network – has a wifi called Mifi in a pay-as-you-go plan, so you aren’t locked into a monthly plan. Great for sporadic travelers. I believe the new unlimited plan is $55/mo. (as needed). The old plan is $40/mo. (as needed – but you have to use it every-so-often to keep the $40/mo. activated…and they don’t throttle downloads as soon as the $55/mo. plan). I found a backdoor to access the old plan and get grandfathered in. It takes a little bit of time to find the right unit, but it’s awesome. I even use my Mifi at home. And now I just upgraded to their 4G wifi. Can’t wait to start using that!

    Reply
  3. Great article Rachael. For those that have recent Android phones with 4G and Android 4.0, you can get the Android FoxFi app with no tethering plan or rooting required. It does both WiFi and Bluetooth for connection to devices. The WiFi usage goes against your data plan. It works great.

    Reply
  4. Great article Rachael. For those that have recent Android phones with 4G and Android 4.0, you can get the Android FoxFi app with no tethering plan or rooting required. It does both WiFi and Bluetooth for connection to devices. The WiFi usage goes against your data plan. It works great.

    Reply
  5. Great article Rachael. For those that have recent Android phones with 4G and Android 4.0, you can get the Android FoxFi app with no tethering plan or rooting required. It does both WiFi and Bluetooth for connection to devices. The WiFi usage goes against your data plan. It works great.

    Reply
  6. Hey Rachel thanks again for all you do for us. I've been following you for over a year and that's for a good reason. You offer great products and don't try to push junk on us. You've helped me so many times when I was going in the wrong direction and lead down the path that I'm on now. (The Path to Success) Great post as usual.
    Thanks again.
    Morris Murphy (Murph) :)

    Reply
  7. Great tips Rachel – Definitely more fun to be exposed to more randomness and seeinf diff people around you doing random stuff. Love your timed-todo-list as well!

    Reply
  8. Hi Rachael,

    Some great practical tips there.

    In particular the “bring your own wi-fi” is super important. Hotels that charge $15 (or more) for a dreadful shared connection that costs them all of $50 for a whole month should be exposed and shamed :-)

    Not only that, but half the cafes advertising wi-fi here in London always seem to have a mysterious “not quite working” fault when you actually try to use it!

    Martin

    Reply
  9. Fabulous tips Rachel. I'm getting ready to travel so this will definitely come in handy. I agree with you, it's fun to get out in a new place and work. Thanks for taking time to write this and share it with us.

    Reply
  10. Really good post Rachel…I especially like the idea of bring your own power tap – that could have saved me some grief many times before. It's something that I've actually never thought of before though. I've got all the cafes and coffee shops in our town mapped out, so I know where I'm meeting clients, where I can get the most work done, and where to get the best coffee or bagel. LOL

    Reply
  11. Really good post Rachel…I especially like the idea of bring your own power tap – that could have saved me some grief many times before. It's something that I've actually never thought of before though. I've got all the cafes and coffee shops in our town mapped out, so I know where I'm meeting clients, where I can get the most work done, and where to get the best coffee or bagel. LOL

    Reply
  12. Great Timing Rachel –

    I already had on my calendar for tomorrow to check out Clear for portable WIFI and go by the local Library to scope out the workspace situation. I like cafes as well but find I sometimes get distracted with all the goings on around me. Because yes while working at home is nice it can get boring.

    Thanks for the great tips – I too liked the surge protector (power strip) tip.

    Reply
  13. Great tips -getting your own Wi-Fi is an especially good idea. My problem, though, is that I can’t seem to get used to typing all day on a notebook or laptop. I don’t really like working at home, but I mainly do writing and I love my iMac desktop. I’m still trying to find the right mobile device for writing in public!

    Reply
  14. Great post, Rachel.

    It’s great to get out of the house and be among people. Whether at a Starbucks, library, or wherever. Also, having your own WIFI is incredibly useful.

    My first very positive experience with outside the house WIFI was several years ago. I was in LA for meetings and on my way to one of them I realized that I’d forgotten to send a second mailing to my list about a paid workshop I’d just created. Suddenly I spied a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf store (Which I much prefer to Starbucks) pulled in. Ordered coffee, sent my email out and since I was early for my meeting, sipped and read the USA Today online. In less than 20 minutes, just before leaving, I checked my email. I had over $600 in orders! It blew me away.

    Gotta love the Internet way of life wherever you are!

    Reply
  15. If you’re spending a lot of time in a cafe, it’s also a good idea to tip the staff well and order something a time or two after your initial order. If you order one thing, don’t tip them and then sit there for six hours the staff tend to get a little annoyed :-)

    Reply

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