With the rise of remote work, more people are venturing out of the home office and into coffee shops.
About a third of remote work hours happen in "third places" such as cafés, libraries and coworking spaces, MIT research shows. And when Australia's Swinburne University of Technology researchers asked people to name their favourite third place, cafés won by a wide margin.
Aside from the caffeine boost, the lure of a coffee shop to get work done shouldn't make sense: a room full of strangers, a hissing espresso machine, no desk, no door to close. However, for many, it's where the deep work happens.
Maeesha Biswas, co-founder of a technology company, says that in the company's early stages, she and her colleagues worked out of a variety of third spaces, including coffee shops.
"Co-working alongside other café goers helped us feel connected without engaging directly," she says. "There's an aliveness to cafés that's contagious and we borrowed energy from it while staying grounded in our own work."
And because no two cafés are alike, the feel of an individual place can inspire: "Working out of a café lets you borrow its style for the price of a coffee," she says.
While café owners have mixed feelings about customers sipping a single latte for hours while working on their laptops, a growing body of research suggests there are major benefits for workers.
Unconventional workspaces boost creative thinking, specifically when the space's features are unrelated to the task at hand, according to a recent study published in the journal Management Science by Sunkee Lee, an associate professor of organizational theory and strategy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and Manuel Sosa, a professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD.
The authors found that a room full of visual cues tied to the problem narrows thinking, while an unrelated environment expands it. Which may be why a coffee shop works: it has nothing to offer your spreadsheet except noise, strangers and the smell of espresso.
In an interview, Dr. Lee says the novelty of a new environment away from the office or your desk at home can also bring new energy, which in turn increases productivity.
He adds there is a social pressure: "Similar to why one works out more at the gym where there are others who are also working out."
There's also something motivating about paying for that cup. "Coffee is not free. You paid money to sit at a table in a coffee shop. To make that cost worthwhile, it may be in one's best interest to work hard," he says.
So, it turns out the coffee shop does make sense on paper: the unfamiliar setting is doing the cognitive work, and the strangers around you supply the pressure to keep going.
Stuart Embree, owner of The Pink Café in Cobourg, Ontario, has watched the shift firsthand. In recent years, he says, more people are using cafés as a place to work, study and hold meetings.
"Coffee shops have become modern-day community hubs, and that's something we embrace," he says. The challenge, he adds, is that "cafés don't simply sell coffee – we're effectively selling seating capacity."
So, the next time you are getting cabin fever from remote work or have hit a wall and motivation is low, maybe try your nearest coffee shop.