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As a freelance writer, I could write from anywhere. I choose to work from a desk, and I get a chance to explain why.
When you hear about freelance writers, you’ll hear that one of the perks is you get to work from anywhere. You certainly can. There have been times that I’ve worked from the coffee shop, the library, or even a hotel room. There are times that I work from my own bed.
However, more often than not, I will work from a desk. And not just any desk. I work from my desk.
This is important to me. Anyone who knows me will know that I turn down working from other people’s houses if I can avoid it. It’s not just because I’m weird and like my own space. It’s because my desk is set up just the way I need it.
I’m more productive when I work from a desk
The biggest reason I choose to work from a desk is productivity. I am simply more productive when I’m at a desk. There are fewer distractions around me, whether it’s just the discomfort of the space I’m in or people moving around in front of me.
I don’t need to have music on. If I’m having a day where I need silence or I’m working on a client project where music is distracting me, I don’t have to worry about it. In a coffee shop, I’d need the music to drown out the sound of people talking. The library isn’t too bad, but if I need to play a quick video for research, I’d need the headphones so as not to annoy other people around me.
The one thing that distracts me the most at my desk is looking out the window. But you need breaks sometimes. Having the window there is actually good for me.
Everything is where I need it at any given moment
My diary is in front of me at my desk. I have my whiteboard, and the extra items I may need for note-taking or planning are in my drawers.
Absolutely everything I am going to need during the day is at my desk.
That’s not the case anywhere else. On my bed, I won’t have the numeric keyboard for all the times I have to “alt” and press a load of numbers. I have to make sure things like em-dashes and words with accents or umlauts are available for me to copy and paste into the content. I don’t have the mouse that I prefer because it doesn’t sit on the lap desk well enough.
When I’m in a coffee shop or at a friend’s house, I won’t take all my notebooks. I take the minimum, and then that usually causes a problem for note-taking. I’m visual. I need things in front of me and with the right colors.
With just a reach, I have everything when I work from a desk.
I prefer the bigger screen of the computer monitor
There are times that I work with images. Even when I’m not, I just prefer to have a bigger screen.
My Microsoft Surface is great when I need it. It runs fast, and it does everything that I need for most projects. But it doesn’t have the best screen size.
I can’t lug my monitor around everywhere. It’s actually an all-in-one computer, but I still wouldn’t be able to take it everywhere. It’s for my desk and my desk alone. And while it runs a little slow now at times, I still prefer working on it for the size of the screen.
Small screens give me a headache after a while. That will lead to lower productivity levels and longer work days. I need the desktop computer.
I get to move my standing desk around
The biggest reason I like to work from a desk is because I have a standing desk. It’s one of those toppers ($), so I have the main desk and then the standing element to go with it. And I make sure I use it.
Every hour, I will pull the desk to a stand. It stays like that for at least 30 minutes and then I sit down again for an hour. I repeat this throughout the day.
I can tell if I’ve worked without standing for a while. My legs and bum go numb, and my back aches. I have a good chair and posture when writing, but it doesn’t fix all the problems that sitting at a desk brings.
I wouldn’t get this benefit working elsewhere. I can get up to buy another coffee at a coffee shop if I wanted, but I wouldn’t get to work while standing. It would look odd if I did it anywhere else, and I’d probably be asked to leave. Plus, I wouldn’t have my keyboard and computer at eye level because the desks in the library or the tables at the coffee shop wouldn’t move.
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Why do you choose to work from a desk? Why do you prefer working elsewhere? Let me know in the comments below.