Coworking spaces vs coffee shops for actual work - no contest

Spent 3 months bouncing between cafes in Chiang Mai and got maybe 2 real hours of work done per day. Switched to a proper coworking desk for $150 a month and my output tripled. Has anyone else found the noise level makes or breaks their focus?

2 comments

2 Comments

riley_schmidt19d ago

Oh yeah, same here, cafe noise just wrecked my focus until I finally got a dedicated desk.

owens.cameron18d ago

Jumped into a coworking space here in Bangkok last month and yeah, the noise thing is real. Cafe chatter has that weird in-between volume where your brain keeps trying to listen in but can't actually follow a conversation so it just gets stuck in this half alert state. That's terrible for anything that needs real thinking. I've noticed this pattern in a lot of things actually, like how people say they concentrate better on a crowded bus than a quiet library because the bus noise is steady and predictable while the library has random coughs and page flips that yank your attention around. The coworking space has this constant low hum of focused work happening around me and it just clicks my brain into gear. Plus having a proper chair and desk instead of hunching over a tiny cafe table probably saves my back too.