Whatever your role in the language services industry, there’s a good chance you have to spend at least some of your time working from home.
If you enjoy working independently, dislike office distractions and perform best in your own surroundings, home working has few drawbacks.
But if you thrive on the buzz of office life and prefer to have people around you, the home-based setup can at times create an isolating and creativity-sapping environment.
One option, if you’re in the latter camp, is to find a public spot with internet access and work from there instead.
Cafes are the obvious choice. But unless you can afford all the drinks needed to keep a table for more than a few hours each day, coffee-shop working is more an occasional treat than a sustainable alternative.
At least, that’s how it used to be. Because now, thanks to the marvellous Coffitivity app, you can bring the cafe to your home office for free – no overpriced lattes required.
Bring the cafe to your home office with Coffitivity
Coffitivity recreates the gentle hum of a coffee shop, with all the whooshing machines, clinking cutlery and low, indistinct chatter that makes cafes such appealing places to work.
The app is built on research showing that coffee houses create just the right level of ambient noise to fuel creativity, and it claims to help users work better and more productively.
I, your humble scribe, started using Coffitivity in 2013, back when I was a home-based freelance translator. And I still use it now on the odd occasion I need to work from home.
I struggle to focus in complete silence, but I also find music distracting. For me, Coffitivity is the perfect kind of background noise: unobtrusive, yet lively enough to get my thoughts and ideas moving.
I love being in the office, and Coffitivity is the best replacement I’ve found so far for the background bustle my colleagues provide. After the app has been running for a while, I sometimes even forget – sad as it sounds – that I’m sitting and working alone in my front room.
Of course, real coffee shops and offices are always preferable. But if you don’t have regular access to either of those, give Coffitivity a try – and tweet us if you like what it does.
