I wrote about my first experience working from a cafe some time ago, and I’ve been looking for other interesting spots throughout the week. A few friends of mine suggested a couple of places which were like coffee shops, but not really coffee shops. It’s difficult to explain, but the concept is the following: you pay a certain amount every minute you spend at this place, and the rest is all free of charge — coffee, tea, doughnuts, cookies, wi-fi, board games, books, and so on.

It turns out there are quite a few such places here in Moscow, and the first on my list was Local Time (in the photo above) which is around an hour away from where I live. It’s not very big, but according to the owner, can easily host up to a hundred visitors.

Tea with fresh lemon, and then some good coffee, that’s what got me started working. It wasn’t very crowded since it was a weekday and it was early. A few folks were busy working on the other side of the big room, and a couple folks were playing a board game nearby. I didn’t seem to notice them though, as I was busy doing my work, and quite productive actually!

More people arrived after lunch, it started to get a little noisier. I spent a total of three hours (that’s 180 minutes) at Local Time and had to pay 180 rubles ($6) when I left. I loved the place overall, just wish it was closer to the place where I live, since a one-hour metro drive in the morning is not the best way to start your day.

I’m also thinking about organizing a WordPress Moscow Meetup there in mid-March. They have a big screen, sound, comfy chairs and sofas, and I got a discount price for making it on a weekday. More about the meetup later, in a separate blog post. Back to Local Time.

I’ll be visiting other similar places throughout this month, I’ve got two others on my list: Циферблат (Clockfacer) and Anticafe Babochki. Both are a little more expensive, but look bigger on the photos, worth giving them a try anyway :)

What do you think? Do you have a similar place in your area? If you don’t, would you visit one if you did, and how often? Do you think charging by the minute is fine? I noticed none of them say anything about membership cards, I’d get a monthly pass if it gave me unlimited access for a fixed price, which is also a certain guarantee for them. Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Today was the first time I tried working from a cafe, not because I had no internet connectivity at home, though. I just decided I should give it a try. I didn’t have a huge variety of options where to go, since it’s quite cold outside and I didn’t want to spend all day in the metro either. I went to McDonald’s which is 5 minutes walk from where I live.

I didn’t take me long to find a good spot where I can sit with my MacBook, so I had a couple hamburgers and of course coke. It did take me a while to get used to all the noise around, but eventually I stopped noticing it, and what’s best — I stopped feeling weird.

The time flew by (and so did the hamburgers) and since I didn’t need any voice or video, I was quite comfortable writing and committing actual code :) There were a few distracting moments though: the wifi spot was made to disconnect every 30 minutes, so I had to reconnect and relaunch proxy and SSH every half an hour; and people came by once in a while, asking if they may sit next to me. The last time that happened I didn’t even look — I just nodded.

The funniest thing, though, is that I met a person who was sort of starting his own business in Moscow, and he wanted to hire me to make him a website for $100. And I didn’t say “no”, I just pointed him to the right direction (a freelancers job board.) I thought of telling him about WordPress, but I had more important things to focus on at that moment :) Maybe next time!

Another funny story is that I asked a friend of mine whether he ever worked from McDonald’s, and that I’m willing to give it a try. He was shocked because he thought that I was applying for a job at McDonald’s. To better understand this, the Russian “from” and “at” in that context, can easily mean different things. Like “working at home” and “working at a cafe.”

To wrap up, it did feel a little weird working from a cafe, but I loved the fact that I didn’t have to stay home. Next time I’ll try to pick a different spot, maybe one that’s not so crowded and with a better Internet connection. So what about you? Have you ever worked from a cafe? What places can you recommend for the best productivity?