Step into a coffee shop in any major city around the world and you’re likely to see people hunched over a laptop working away.  It’s a trend that is growing, with a recent study highlighting the significant impact this new form of working is having on the sector.

The analysis of cafes in Norway, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States found that a growing number of cafes are specifically tailoring their offering to the digital nomads who can work from anywhere.  For instance, power sockets were found to be crucial, and often more important than the actual coffee itself.

The study found that the social aspect of working in a cafe was vitally important to workers, who revealed that it made them feel a part of something bigger, whilst the background noise also bolstered their creativity levels.

This was verified by a study, which found that the low-level background noise you often find in a coffee shop can be beneficial, especially to our creative thinking.  What’s more, the fact that we’re surrounded by people working hard can spur us on to greater effort. A study published last year suggests that being surrounded by others beavering away can provoke greater effort in ourselves.

Couple this with a welcoming, yet flexible environment, and it’s perhaps not surprising that more and more of us are choosing the friendly and social option of working in a cafe rather than the solitary existence of working at home.

Coffee for non-nomads

Of course, not everyone has the freedom, or indeed the inclination, to work remotely from a cafe all day, but coffee can have a number of benefits regardless of where it’s drunk.  For instance, a study published in 2013 examined the impact caffeine has on the way we think. The conclusion was that coffee can be fantastic when we want to focus on a task, but if we want to be creative, this laser focus can prevent our mind from exploring new and divergent thinking.

This focusing impact was also recorded in another recently published study that found that serving coffee in meetings can focus the discussions, whilst also boosting involvement from participants and generally raise contentment as to the success of the meeting.

The authors felt that most research into the impact of coffee on our performance focused on the individual, so they wanted to examine whether similar impacts could be seen on group performance.  It transpired that people who drank coffee prior to their meeting were effusive in their praise for both their own and the groups’ performance.

Caffeinated meetings

Participants were first asked to have coffee together roughly 30 minutes before holding a group discussion.  Each participant was tasked with making recommendations about the topic at the conclusion of the meeting. A control group was given the same exercise but they consumed coffee afterwards rather than before.

That the coffee drinking group performed so well prompted a follow up study to explore whether it was consuming caffeine itself or the social act of drinking together that boosted performance.  A second group of participants were recruited to perform a similar task, but this time, one portion of them were given decaffeinated coffee.

Interestingly, the results were similar to those from the first experiment, with the group who had the caffeinated coffee performing better than their peers who were served decaffeinated coffee instead.

Now, caveat time.  The researchers accept that the caffeine itself made people more alert, and it was the alertness that helped their performance.  Suffice to say, caffeine isn’t the only way to be more alert, with things like good sleep, exercise and a healthy diet all believed to contribute.  A cup of coffee might do the trick in the meantime however.