Writing in the woods on vacation was pretty nice.

I like a neat desk. My current desk is very small, so I’ve done what I can to maximize the space. It also means I need to keep it organized. This works for me.

I went to a seminar on productivity years ago when I was in an office job. One thing that struck me was that apparently some people thrive in a messy desk environment. According to the presenter, they need that stimulation to get started. They like having work already out in front of them. To each their own, but if you are one of these people, not only is it possible that you won’t resonate with what I have to say, but I also really would like to hear about your perfect writing places in the comments.

I’m not good at sitting still. I go until I’m worn out. (Or until dosed with a chemical substance. When I have a cold, cold medication works. Alcohol works.) If I have mess on my desk, I am distracted by it. It means things undone that I have to get done or things I need to put away or clean. A clean desk is one of the things that has worked for me when it comes to writing. Another is my treadmill desk.

I have a standard treadmill. I got my first one in Chicago for cold weather days and rainy days. I’ve upgraded since moving to Nashville, and although the treadmill is still great for the shorter winters and ice storms, it gets most of its use as my walking desk.

Aerial shot of my treadmill desk in action.

I bought a generic walking desk plank that runs across the arms of my treadmill and attaches to them. I put the wireless keyboard and mouse on top. My laptop sits on the magazine rack. I’m good to go. This solves my problem of restlessness and the random aches and pains I get when I sit still for too long. You can ask my mother, I’ve never been good at being still. It also keeps my butt from spreading. This is one of my perfect places to write.

When things started opening up a bit, I started meeting one of my writing friends out for coffee. Sometimes we would talk about writing, mostly just catching up on life, and it was good. One of these times, our scheduled coffee date fell on a day that others of our group were in town, so we invited them. I decided to go early and get a little writing done. It ended up being a good thing I did as our original meeting place was closed for the weekend. I found a new one nearby and that’s where we met.

I enjoyed it immensely.

Sneaky pic of an early Saturday coffee shop.

So much so that I decided to go back the following weekend to get some early morning writing done before starting my Saturday. However, I plugged the wrong location into my GPS. There were two locations! At this point, I only had an hour and a half left to write before I had to get home to prepare for company at our house. So I stayed. It was good!

Since then every Saturday, I’ve tried a different coffee shop around Nashville. We didn’t get to explore Nashville much before the pandemic hit and working at coffee shops was one of the things that I didn’t know how much I missed.

Part of me is hoping that one will stand out from the rest and become my ‘regular’ but I also don’t mind trying the rest out. There’s something about going somewhere anonymously. At 7 a.m. on a Saturday, not many people are staying and meeting with friends. Most are grabbing coffee to go and walking their dogs. I get my pick of whatever spot I want to settle in to and I get to work with no distractions from home. My husband likes it because I don’t start bugging him at 6:30 when he wants to sleep in.

I get a lot done during these times. It’s focused time away from cats crawling on my desk or screaming at me for food. No video games going in the background. No dust on the side table for me to notice and make mental notes to take care of later. There’s also a little bit of self-restraint. If I end up on Facebook too long, I’ve wasted some of my coffee shop morning time. It’s done wonders for my focus.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing at home. I have two different lap desks*, one that I keep in the living room beside what I call my ‘writing chair’ and the other that I keep in the bedroom by my side of the desk. My Writing Chair is my little escape. Since I work from home, I’m not just writing for myself on the treadmill or at my desk, I’m there 40 hours a week for work. So when I move to my Writing Chair, I’m officially on me-time. I like writing there when I want to be in the same room as Dean. He can unwind with his video games, I can write, one of us can wear headphones.

When I get obsessed with a story, I want to write it until I’m zonked. So, in order to keep with a decent sleep schedule, I’ll get myself completely ready for bed, then drag out the bedside lap desk, and write until my eyes get heavy. Then all I have to do is slide the tablet and the lap desk off to the side and shut off the light.

*Note, I didn’t intend on having two different lap desks. One arrive cracked, although still functional, and they just sent me a new one without asking for the other one back. So the cracked one lives in the bedroom, the other lives out ‘in public.’ I also bring the cracked one on trips in case something happens to it. I mean, it’s already cracked.

So, is there a perfect place to write? Yes. And I believe it changes depending on what you need at the time. Don’t be afraid to go out of the norm and try something new. It might just be your new perfection.

Is there a perfect place to write?