Where do you go to do your best work?

I was chatting with a fellow startup buddy who primarily works out of coffee shops around DC. I asked him the question, "What's your algorithm for selecting which coffee shop you're going to work at each day?"

He said that it depends on the type of work that he needs to get done that day. If he needs to write, he'll go to Coffee Shop #1. If he needs to get in a design frame of mind, he prefers Coffee Shop #2. For most other tasks, he'll go to Coffee Shop #3.

I thought this was so interesting.

I work in an office two days a week and split the rest of my work week between home, a co-working space, and (less frequently) coffee shops.

These are vastly different environments with varying levels of noise, distractions, and comfort. So if I need to take calls on specific days, I'll avoid coffee shops because they are too noisy. Or if I'm a bit tired, I'll avoid working from home (that couch is soooo tempting) and will go to a co-working space or coffee shop so I can be surrounded by more energy.

But I never thought about which environment would be better for specific types of work, especially not to the granularity of different coffee shops (which are all pretty similar) for different skills.

There's been a lot of talk about the importance of work environments, much of it surrounding the controversy of whether open offices are good or bad for productivity. For example, see these articles from The Washington Post, The Ladders, and David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH is the founder of Basecamp and Ruby on Rails and has very strong opinions on the workplace).

Open offices promote collaboration, teamwork, and ideation. Open offices are noisy, lower morale, and increase interruptions.

The fact of the matter is that everyone works differently, and this can change with the day of the week. Or the type of work that needs to be done.

Many corporations force their employees to work from the office full-time. But I think that many companies are finally seeing the benefits of a more flexible work schedule for their employees.

Entrepreneurs often have the flexibility to experiment and find their ideal workspace for the type of work that they need to do or the mood that they're in.

So my question is, do you know where you do your best, most productive work? Does the location vary by the type of work that you do, the mood that you're in, or other factors? I'd love to hear more about your story in the comments, or tweet at me at @mikewchan.

Thanks for reading!