A lot of writers in the industry will go to a café and sit down for the rest of the day to accomplish some writing. Many actors will go to cafés to practice their lines or develop their character more; sometimes they are there to people watch. A director may go to a café to work on his shot list, or go through the script in a very detailed fashion. Whatever it is, people in the entertainment industry are “famous” for going to cafés to do their work. It’s funny, entertaining to watch, and actually a good place to get work done (as someone who has FULLY done this before). If you are looking to do any of these things, then here are some tips on how to accomplish the most while looking the least cliché possible!

1)             Headphones are an important part of your persona at this café. In order to get work done, you will want to have your focus completely centered on whatever it is you are doing and this includes having the ability to wash out other noises around you. Also, if you don’t want anyone bothering you, this is the perfect way out of that.
2)             Find your ideal table and chair setup, and stay there! Don’t set all of your things up at one table and move to a different table a little later. It is a little peevish for the other café-goers because not only are you taking up a table for who knows how long, but then you are also changing to a different table, leaving nothing but your now-warm chair and lack of an outlet to these new people.
3)             Pick a time and stick with it. If you want to be there for 3 hours then set a timer on your phone and stay until the timer goes off. Unless you have an audition, or something else comes up, you should allow yourself to have a proper work schedule set. This will help you accomplish your tasks!
4)             Write out what you are going to accomplish and make sure you get it done before that timer goes off! Too many writers, actors, other people in the industry, don’t set goals for themselves when they sit down to do work. Make sure you are naming exactly what it is you are going to accomplish (i.e. 5 pages of script written, or memorize these 3 monologues, etc…) this gives you something to aim for and will help you accomplish more.
5)             Remember that you are there to work, so relax, unplug, and try to get your work done. If you are sitting there browsing Facebook for the entire 3 hours, it is not very helpful to you and only adds to the classic cliché about actors and writers in cafés! Make sure you are representing all of us fairly and getting down to business when you sit in front of your computer screen.

      Although kind of cliché, cafés can be a very useful place in helping you get your work done. If you follow these tips you will see that getting your writing, memorizing or anything else done at a café is possible and that you are more likely to actually get it done! Please let us know in the comments if you have tried any of these and what the outcome was!