View From Today’s Office: Smith’s Coffee Company

View from Today’s Office is a blog series detailing all of the fun and interesting places where I am able to work. As full-time remote worker AND a full-time live aboard on the canals of London, I am always cruising to new areas and finding cool places to spend a few hours on my computer. Follow along for all the fun!

Today’s office is Smith’s Coffee Company, located in Hemel Hempstead, England. My wife and I stumbled upon this location while jogging along the canal a few days ago. We were both struck by the delicious smell of roasting coffee, so we diverted our workout to investigate. When we located the front of the building, the window had a sign that read “Cafe Open,” so we went right in. Despite being rather unattractive in our appearance, the folks at Smith’s couldn’t have been nicer, so we agreed to come back later and spend some time at their facility.

And return we did. Lee, the office boss man, told us all about the company, their facility, and some of their cool side projects. He was even kind enough to give us some pointers on coffee preparation using our new french press. Of course, we also talked coffee brews and his team helped us decide between a couple of fresh bags to take with us. They ground the beans to our specification right there while we waited.

My wife and I spent a few hours chatting and working from their on-site cafe. Before we left, however, we had to check out the museum adjacent to the cafe. This small room is packed with hundreds of historical coffee pieces, from beautiful authentic Turkish coffee sets to antithetical stove-top peculators from the 70s. And they had plenty of funny coffee signage as well.

Overall, Smith’s Coffee Company was a great place to work for a few hours. The hosts were amazing, the coffee was delicious, and the setting was relaxing. I definitely recommend stopping in for a cuppa if you’re in the Hemel Hempstead area. Check out their website at: https://www.smithscoffee.co.uk/.

Where are your favorite places to work outside of the office? Any tips, tricks, or suggestions for staying productive while enjoying your workday? Leave a comment below or reach out via the Contact section on The Telework Guru. Thanks!

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Critical Tips to Help You Succeed While Working Remotely (Part 3: Having Fun)

This article is the last in a three-part series highlighting the best ways to work remotely. Part One focused on “the basics” (create a dedicated workspace, commit to a schedule, and empower yourself to sign off), Part Two detailed ways to excel (develop a morning routine, set two goals for the week, and make yourself visible); this third part will highlight ways to truly enjoy the experience of working without an office.

1.      Work from a café. Cabin fever is a real thing, and it doesn’t just affect those who are snowed in in the woods. Working and living in the same place on a regular basis means you’re staying put a lot more than those who commute into an office every day. True, this is a blessing in many ways, but it can slowly eat at you over time. Take it from me, it’s very easy to look out the window on a Thursday and realize that you haven’t ventured off your property in five days. While this may seem like nothing more than a silly anecdote, working from home can lead to some negative side effects. The most prominent and innocent is feeling claustrophobic or antsy, but this can lead to more profound irritability and general discomfort. To prevent this, I recommend that all remote workers proactively plan to work from a nearby café, restaurant, or pub. The frequency and duration of these days can and should differ from person to person, but one should be proactive about it; don’t wait until you are feeling penned in to make it out. As an added bonus, I often notice a boost of productivity when working from these locations. There’s something about the change of pace, the background music, the less comfortable setting that actually helps me work better. Try it out and see what works for you!

2.      Make it a point to socialize/network. For many, the biggest downside to remote work is the absence of face-to-face interaction with people outside of your immediate circle. This downside is exacerbated if you’re working remotely from a new city, where you don’t have the network of friends and family that you might in other places. In any of these situations, it’s important to get out and meet new people to expand your network. Join a book club at the local library, play some drop-in basketball, join a local alumni club, meet your neighbors; but most importantly, put yourself out there. This can be uncomfortable for some, but the payoffs are extremely valuable. Being an avid ice hockey player, I make it a point to participate in local drop-in games a few times per week to meet new people when I moved to new areas. This quickly leads to finding teams in need of additional players, which leads to closer connections with larger groups in weekly games and occasional tournaments. I’ve made dozens of lasting personal bonds via sports in this way.

3.      Travel. This may sound simple, but teleworking means you can work from anywhere. Most read that to mean “work from home,” but I advocate that everyone take it more literally. You’ve been given a tremendous opportunity to work without an office, take advantage of it! Now this comes with some caveats; make sure that you have an adequate internet connection, can stay connected (via telephone and IM) with those you must, and remain productive. But with some basic research and minimal discipline, you should be able to comply with these from just about anywhere. So travel! Go upstate with the family, visit friends across the border, or find that picturesque beach and work a few hours from a hammock. Mobile internet is so fast these days that there are relatively few places you can’t work. To do this seamlessly and successfully, however, requires planning. Call ahead to the hotel to check the Wi-Fi speed, schedule a quiet place from which to take your calls, and plan connection redundancies. It takes some up-front planning, but the rewards can be tremendous. Imagine working the rest of your day normally, but instead of signing off to prep dinner or walk the dog, you take the elevator down to the hotel pool or take the family for a mountain hike or explore a new city that you’ve never visited. For many remote workers, this is a possibility, just one we never seize.

I sincerely hope that this series of articles has been enjoyable and valuable for those teleworking and working from home. As always, I welcome any questions, feedback, etc. Just drop a comment in the section below or reach out to me directly. Thanks!

Michael Collar is an American expat working remotely in the tech space from his houseboat in London. He writes on a variety of topics, including travel, professional best practices, and what it’s like to live on a narrowboat.

You can follow his travel/lifestyle blog, Andiamo Bambino!, at andiamobambino.wordpress.com and his professional blog, The Telework Guru, at theteleworkguru.wordpress.com.