(I thought I had written about these before, but I can’t find where.)

I’ve long wanted to spend several days working from cafes, parks, public spaces, and libraries. Mainly to get to know Denver, its public transportation, and as a change up from working from home every day. Various crises kept me from following through for the past year and a half. I finally started a weekly library day this month, and I’m enjoying them. I’ve been extra productive on a few of them, as well, despite having to spend time traveling and adjusting to new locations.

Locations

First, the public libraries. I went to three satellite public libraries; each of them were tiny, with varying levels of noise. I quite like the central public library, but it has limited hours, and only the first floor is open, until construction completes late this year.

I quite like Union Station as well, but it’s also under construction until mid-July.

The Capital One cafe is spacious, clean, and quiet, if lacking in character. I might try working from Hello Darling at some point.

I may check out some university libraries, which I believe are open to the public:

• Regis University library
• Auraria library
• DU libraries

Some more resources I found:

• Unusual places for remote work in Denver - some of these are pretty cool. I’m not too sure about working from the museums or botanic gardens, but I should check them out someday.
• workfrom.co
• Redditor’s map of downtown places to work

Tools

As I mentioned earlier, I like working from my iPad, though I need my Raspberry Pi or ssh access to my mac for my preferred neovim environment.

Today, I ventured out with my Macbook Air instead. I found:

• I liked working with my Roost laptop stand and ZSA Voyager when I had the time and space for a more complex setup
• The commandline is way more responsive on the Macbook, as opposed to sshing into the Mac or Raspberry Pi
• I don’t like the Macbook keyboard as much as the iPad Magic Keyboard
• I wish the Macbook had cellular access for easy networking, like my iPad. I can tether off my phone, but it’s another step that doesn’t always work.
• I worked on the Macbook without worrying about the battery once. I tend to look for power with my iPad.

Eseentially, the iPad is way more portable and easy to set up when I’m moving from place to place. The Macbook works well if I’m going to be sticking to one work-friendly location for a while.

Conclusion

I’m enjoying my library days, even though I have a low hit rate of places I’d work at again. Even though the summer heat makes commuting more uncomfortable. The new surroundings somehow boost my productivity.