I Urgently Need Coffee!

How a Cafe Helps Me To Study and Be More Creative

I am not addicted to coffee. Though I suffer from a dry withdrawal. Due to the current pandemic, all cafes in my city are closed. Which leaves me with no other opportunity than working from home. Alone. With the always same view. Not only physically but mentally.

In this article, I explain how working in a cafe helps me to study and be more creative. I will tell you about the “state of flow”, why a busy cafe helps me to stay focussed, and how it gifts me a clearer mind through healthy breaks.

The State of Flow

It began with a concept I stumbled about, namely the “state of flow”. Steven Ketler writes about that in his book “The Rise of Superhuman Performance”. What I took away from it is the following…

Flow is a specific state of our brain that helps us to work more focused, more creative, more enduring.

To get ourselves into this state we can use one or multiple of the following five triggers: risk, novelty, complexity, unpredictability, and pattern recognition.

That fascinated me. I used to have problems focussing on my studying especially for extended periods. I know that I am not constantly coming up with creative ideas but only in proper environments that I have to push myself into actively.

So the idea of only having to pull one of the five triggers and naturally transfer my brain into this desirable state of “Superhuman Performance” sounded promising.

The novelty was the most obvious trigger to me. I knew immediately how I could add this element to my work life. Hitting a new physical place now and then should become my thing. In the following weeks I settled in as many cafes I didn't even know existed in my immediate environment.

Me. Seeking the flow.

An Additional Layer of Excitement

The first thing I noticed was that studying suddenly was much more joyful than before. It stopped feeling like a stack of notes that I just had to work through until a given deadline. Instead, it felt much more like a very good book — unfortunately, illegibly written by my hand. I looked forward to my studying sessions, excited which topic would await me that day.

Studying in a cafe added a layer of excitement. Fueled by the adventure of discovering a new physical place and its atmosphere. Just like that.

I started to enjoy the process of studying and understanding difficult topics. It felt exciting to just put a pile of empty pages on whatever table in today's cafe I was confronted with. Filling the empty pages with even worse handwritten notes would get me closer to an understanding that I did not have before.

Spoiler: To be honest with you. I am not sure if I managed to find my state of flow. But I most definitely found something in these cafe sessions. In particular, these are 1. little positive distractions, 2. healthy breaks, and 3. a structure to my daily life. Read on. I'll tell you about it.

Little Distractions Keep Me Concentrated

That slightly sounds like a dream world in which I would be carried by that much excitement I could never get tired of studying. I hope you would not believe me if I tried to sell you that bull***t. Obviously, at some point in the progressing day, I would get tired — but firstly, this would typically happen much later than usual and secondly, I could keep my concentration high for a while after the first signs of tiredness.

A cafe usually comes with people — people having a great time with friends, enjoying time for themselves, or working remotely as you do. I enjoyed them.

The sheer presence of other people surrounding me helped me with overcoming the first hits of tiredness. It wasn't even important what they were doing. The young couple for example kept me smiling by having a small fight about whatever and finding their peace by laughing with their baby a minute later. Or the elderly woman reading her long-paged novel while sipping from her cappuccino now and then just made me warm inside.

All these little observations kept me awake. Although sometimes I got distracted for a sec this helped me to collect myself and get back to my work with a clear mind. I think my mind was just happy for these short breaks and thus stopped actively search for distractions.

Healthy Breaks For a Clearer Mind

Let's come back to the present reality for a sec. I am working from home, basically falling from bed to the desk directly. That is okay for me. I almost like it that way. I tried several morning routines and figured the no-morning-routine has its charm, too. My problem is what happens when I get tired and take a break — it is the way I take my break.

I suck at taking healthy breaks at home because I do not give my mind the chance to rest. Taking a healthy break in the cafe is much easier. It comes naturally.

A usual break at home looks like the following: walking from my desk into the kitchen, starting a well-chosen video on YouTube, preparing and eating for 10 minutes…Sorry, nearly forgot…Continue watching YouTube, now completely random for another 50 minutes.

In contrast, a usual break at the cafe looks that way: actively closing my laptop, losing myself in watching people for 5 minutes, grabbing myself a bagel from the counter, and listening to well-chosen music while eating my bagel. Mostly followed up by reading a book for quite a while or continuing to stare at people for another 50 minutes (smile).

Even though you might think of me as a little strange with all my staring, I think we agree on which of these breaks is better for our minds. Which of those gives us more headspace. And which of those helps us to be more creative in the long run.

Structure To My Daily Life

Now that I told you about my break, let's zoom out a little and have a look at the overall structure of my typical day where I used to be in the cafe. I usually started my days similar to now. Rolling out of bed and on to my desk.

Starting the days at my home desk played on two things in particular. First, my concentration and my creativity worked just fine in the morning — even at home. Second, I could use two screens to get work done that sucks on a laptop.

I do not want to spend every hour of my workday identically. Adding an afternoon cafe session added a varying and joyful structure to my daily life.

After a short lunch, I would directly head to my favorite cafe just a few minutes by foot — on really crazy days I tried a new one. Ordering my beloved cappuccino with an extra shot espresso I could now start the second part of my day. No after lunch tiredness at all — which finally is the point where I can no longer deny the role of caffeine in this story.

Please forget all the nerdy productivity guru stuff that part of my story may relate to. The most important structure the cafe sessions would add to my day was the end of my workday. I rarely left the cafe alone. Usually, a friend joined me for a cup of coffee or my girlfriend would pick me up to start the evening together.

And even if none of my friends were around, I always enjoyed the closing time together with the cafe community. Often in silence with the last chapter in my book and a few sips of my already cold coffee. More often in staring :)

Could you extract something? Which part resonated the most with you? I am happy to read your opinion in the comments. Hope to be read by you soon, again. Feel free to follow and join me on the journey. It would mean the world to me (smile).