Working Out of the House Can Improve Your Mood

I’m writing this from a coffee shop in my town where I sometimes go to do work in the afternoons. For the price of a small (or sometimes large) drink, I can grab a table, set up my laptop, and work on editing, emails, miscellaneous tasks, or even this blog, like I’m doing right now.  Sometimes it’s crowded, but usually it’s not, so I can work in a relatively quiet atmosphere.

But an ideal workspace for me is about more than just quiet: sometimes I like being around other people, and I need to change up my surroundings to freshen my outlook.

I wrote about this in an earlier post about working in family restaurants in Japan, but for me, spending so much time working from home at the same desk in the same surroundings day after day can start to feel repetitious: I love my workspace, but sometimes I want to get out and work somewhere new.

Day Jobs Can Provide This Change of Pace, But Working From Home Often Doesn’t

One of the reasons I liked working Day Jobs was because they got me out of my house and put me in new place that provided a change of mindset.  Like the Japanese concept of honne and tatemae, the act of waking up at the same time every day, commuting to a separate workplace, and sitting down at a different desk (or doing physical work where I could move around) helped refresh me and put me in a clearer state when I got home.

The problem, though, was that I couldn’t do my creative work at my Day Job—I had to do Day Job work at my Day Job.  That changed a bit when I had more free time at my Japanese elementary school job to use as I liked, but for the most part, the Day Jobs that gave me an easy way of changing my surroundings also took up a lot of my time.

Working from home on my own terms, in contrast, allows me to do more of my creative work at the pace I want to be working at, but comes with the downside of keeping me at home, in the same place, and in the same chair for most or all of the time.

And after a while, that can get repetitious.

Getting out to work in a coffee shop, by contrast, can provide exactly the change of pace I’m looking for.  I try to get out once a week or every two weeks, on afternoons when I don’t have any meetings and have work that doesn’t require a lot of books, notes, or technical tasks like making voice recordings.  I like that I can walk to the coffee shop, which means less driving and an easy chance for some exercise, and while I prefer to go there on sunny days, I’ve been known to bring an umbrella and go in the rain or even the snow just to get that change of pace.

If You’re Feeling Shut In At Home, Try Mixing Up Your Workspace

A lot of people work from home in 2023, and while many of them are tethered to their home offices for whatever reason (needing to make phone calls, use special equipment, or stay at home to take care of kids or other loved ones), if your job or creative work offers more flexibility, consider trying a local coffee shop or some other place outside your home.  It doesn’t have to be every day, but even once every week or two weeks can provide the mental boost you need to break up your routine and get a fresh perspective.