Do people actually find it productive to work in a coffee shop? There will be even more distractions and noise than my office.
Alone, I get distracted easily. Around people, I'm less likely to browse away from work because I don't want to be seen as a slacker.
At home or the office, I get no sense of urgency. At a coffee shop, there's all sorts of time limits: from the draining battery to the feeling that after a few hours my welcome will be overstayed. So stuff needs to get done... rapidly.
When I'm near familiar people, my mind focuses a lot on their voices. When around strangers, it doesn't care; their voices and other sounds blur together into background noise.
I guess you could say that working from coffee shops is one way I "hack" myself into being productive. So I'm not surprised to see others enjoy working there too. But probably not for the exact same reasons. People's motives and preferences vary greatly.
Also, the distractions in an office are difficult to block because they all seem relevant to me, which puts me in a constant state of being alert to them. In a coffee shop, I know that the noise is completely irrelevant to me, so it just moves into the background.
If they stand behind me I get the nagging feeling that they might want something even if they don't, and that's way more distracting than a cafe. Even if they're quiet.
Also, the lack of wifi helps aid concentration.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/working-...