Working in Public Places

One of the perks of working freelance is the freedom and flexibility it gives you, time-wise. As long as you meet your deadlines, you’re free to work whenever and wherever you want. It’s quite awesome, to put it bluntly. You can choose to go wherever you want, like say the nearest coffee shop so you can spend the day there working and not worrying about anything else. But there’s also a huge catch – you’ll be working in a public area, where everyone can see you working.I f you’re not careful, they’re also going to see what you’re doing.

Okay, I’m pretty sure you’re not working on something confidential and important in a coffee shop, right? Stuff like your tax returns and top-secret government nuclear warhead plans aren’t exactly for public places. Which is my first tip – don’t work on things you don’t want other people to know about in public. You wouldn’t want any incriminating or proprietary information leaking over to some unscrupulous stranger.

Of course, you may be working on rather mundane stuff. Or even your latest blog entry. Submitting sites to an Australian business directory, perhaps? Or you’re just updating Facebook. Whatever. But you still don’t like the idea of people peeking in your general direction, stealing glances at your monitor. This may be the best reason to invest in a privacy screen for your laptop – only you can see what’s on your screen. It’s not exactly a fool-proof method for privacy, but it’s the easiest way to get some sort of privacy when working on your job in your favorite coffee shop.