I know those sound cryptic but let me tell you what those titles mean. WFC means work from Cafe/coffee shop, WFS means work from Starbucks.

Do you also tend to work from cafes or starbucks?

I’ve been recently trying to go back to WFC which is working from a cafe/coffee shop accompanied with coffee. Sometimes I like working from outside instead of my room. Surrounded by people make me 7x times more productive and boosted with coffee, it just makes my productivity through the roof. But what if working from a cafe is actually not boosting my productivity as it should?

There’s one contributor that makes working from a cafe/coffee shop can personally be a disaster for me; It’s the quality of the coffee that they serve. Not all cafes/coffee shops serve high quality beans. Often to cut costs, they pick the cheapest coffee they can find to make profit. Sure, the place could be the winning point despite the low grade coffee but does it outweigh the positive? Sometimes it’s not always the case.

Working from a cafe in Yogyakarta can be a hit or miss. Their coffee is often not up to par and makes me sick instead of productive. That resulted in me getting sick the following day and thus decreasing my productivity. A lot of people I know disagree that the coffee in Yogyakarta isn’t as good as Bali or even Starbucks. Maybe it’s about their taste preference but coffee from cafes in Yogyakarta is often hit or miss. Perhaps again, because many cafes in Yogyakarta use gayo or sometimes java instead of sumatra or colombian coffee. I generally prefer any latin american coffee than Indonesian ones.

Meanwhile, as I'd like to point out over and over again, working from starbucks is a consistent and very conducive working environment. They are well-lit, not too noisy, great chairs, plenty of sockets, the coffee is okay depending on the beans. I usually also order specialty coffee which they can range from Colombia to Sumatra. When you go to Starbucks, you’re essentially paying for the place instead of the coffee. Is it worth it for my productivity? It kinda does. Usually not only am I more productive, I often have sparkles of ideas and just become more productive the following day instead of getting sick.

For many non-coffee lovers, Starbucks or cafes can be seen as an expensive lifestyle/habit. “ Why not just work from your room?”etc. But for some people working from their tiny apartment room isn’t adding productivity and instead just makes them less productive. I am one of them. If I have too much work to do, I would go outside and get things done. But if I just have lesser things to do, home is where I’ll be. Not to mention, for some people who work remotely, if they don’t have a dedicated office, Starbucks, co-working places and cafes are an option. Being a nomad is a factor as well and the idea of not wanting to settle down in one place is a factor too.

This year, I am trying to make a plan to visit cafes in other countries to see if I actually have a Starbucks addiction or not. My current hypothesis is that I’ve become too dependent on Starbucks and their beans that I almost dislike any other coffee from just regular cafes. I know this exception was made when I was in Bali but what about other countries?. I also wonder what kind of coffee they serve in other countries since in my past experience, I also relied on Starbucks more than I did with the locals. I definitely don’t want to get sick in a foreign place, that's why I rely on them. But this year, I will try to be more experimental and will go to more small local cafes instead of bigger chains. But I also want to try costa coffee since there’s only one and that too at the airport of the capital.

We’ll see where the road will take me this time. I hope it’s going to be a fun adventure and maybe I can find out different coffee cultures from different parts of Southeast Asia.

	𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢. 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥.