Sunday afternoon café experimentation

After reading the discussion on productive writing strategies over at Bitch PhD a while ago, I decided to try out an approach that lots of people have suggested: the lurk-in-a-café-until-I-get-something-done strategy.

So this afternoon I packed my laptop and a few indispensable reference sources and headed into Starbucks to see what I could get written. And then, y'know, because I'm so thoughtful and all, I thought I'd report back my experience for my multitude of reader (that's you, Axis of Peter).

Pros:

1. Conveniently close to home, and free parking on Sundays
2. Endless supplies of yummy drinks (if I had endless supplies of money and endless bladder capacity -- see point #3 under "cons")
3. No internet distractions. Not at the prices they charge for access.
4. Free cake samples!
5. They didn't kick me out or glare even a little bit, despite the fact I sat there for four hours nursing one cup of coffee

Cons:

1. Loud, distracting music. I'm one of those people who work best to the melodious strains of silence.
2. No air conditioning. But then my office doesn't have any either.
3. No working toilet. This at least limited the damage done to my wallet -- no way was I having more than one coffee without a loo in reach.
4. I kept getting distracted by all the rows of pretty cakes

In summary, it greatly increased my Sunday afternoon productivity (from none at all to completing a thesis section). I think it's worth developing into a habit, and maybe on the weekends when I'm not feeling pressured to work on the thesis, my attempts at novelling (and/or myriad unfinished computer programs) could benefit from the same approach.

So yay for that.