Let me start by laying it out honestly. My office is very messy. Books and materials are piled chaotically on the desk and on the floor. People around me tease me, saying, "How on earth do you work in such a creepy, distracting atmosphere?" — but my answer is simple. For me, the office desk is just a decoration; I mostly do my work in places like cafes.
I am clumsy at organizing and my office is like a pigsty, but even so, I think the statement "to focus on work, the surroundings have to be tidy first" makes a lot of sense... Yet on the other hand, there are often times when "organizing for the sake of organizing" takes over from too much nerves being poured into tidying. Too much time is spent on organizing, so the actual work suffers.
In that sense, cafe tables are always kept tidy. (p.285)
From "The Decisive Moments That Change Your Life" (Yein (PlutoBook))
Last Saturday afternoon, I went to the cafe I visit occasionally and sat by the window. For five hours I organized the book I am currently writing. I got up as the sun was setting. On weekends, I visit cafes like this often.
Sometimes the reason I head to a cafe rather than my office or home desk is "focus." Probably the effect of immersion that comes from an unfamiliar environment. Moreover, not seeing the other things that usually interrupt me also seems to raise concentration.
It was nice to find someone similar. Bestselling author Takashi Saito, a professor at Meiji University in Japan, says his own office desk is just decoration, too, and that he mostly works at cafes or conference-room tables.
"Whether it is a cafe or a meeting room, that place is not my territory but a seat I am borrowing for a while, so the amount of work I can do and the time for it are inevitably limited. Thanks to this, the fact that everything other than what I am doing disappears from view gives me psychological stability.
Also, because it is not my own space, the constraint of having to finish within a set time and vacate the seat raises concentration. It feels like sunlight being sizzlingly concentrated to one point through a lens." (p.286)
Also, because it is not my own space, the constraint of having to finish within a set time and vacate the seat raises concentration. It feels like sunlight being sizzlingly concentrated to one point through a lens." (p.286)
Whether a cafe or a conference-room table, it would be good to find and use one other space — besides your own desk — that lets you immerse yourself.
▶ Yeh Byung-il's Economic Notes — Twitter: @yehbyungil / Facebook: www.facebook.com/yehbyungil
