Desk Spot Hopping
Tags: productivity, tip, discuss
Published: 2019-04-17 02:02:20

---
title: Desk Spot Hopping
published: true
description: How I've felt more productive by accident.
tags: productivity,tip,discuss
cover_image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1453728013993-6d66e9c9123a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1000&q=80
---

A few days ago and thanks to an unfortunate event at the office (which involved the bathroom but not me), I was forced by myself to leave my desk and sit somewhere else. I grab my laptop, my headphones and move along, leaving behind my loved spot full of bottles, toys and a few other things.

After some minutes of being sit in this new place surrounded by strangers (not strangers actually, but you know, not the ones I see their faces minute after minute) I managed to get into [the zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)) and once there I was able to stay for a very long time and deep dive into my tasks and code fluently. It was amazing.
The clock continued doing its job and time went away, the odor that once make me run away was gone, however I stayed in that strange place because the feeling of joy in what I was doing was still there, until was time to go home. I packed my things and leaved.

Once inside my car I realized about what happened and decided to do some research. And that was what I did at home in the spare time I could have because of kids.

I've called that experience the _**Desk Spot Hopping**_ and that was how my search started. This [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjRihxtyDng) was the first thing that appeared. Kinda funny, but not what I was looking for.
Some more searches and finally, the closest term I've got was [Hot Desking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_desking) and this is its definition accordingly to Wikipedia:

>Hot desking [..] is an office organization system which involves multiple workers using a single physical work station or surface during different time periods. The "desk" in the name refers to an office desk being shared by multiple office workers on different shifts as opposed to each staff member having their own personal desk. A primary motivation for hot desking is cost reduction through space savings—up to 30% in some cases [...]

Pretty close... I've sit in a co-worker's desk who was on vacations on that day, so technically we shared that desk.
But the main differences with that term is that it isn't an _office organization system_, it's more like a personal decision to move into another place, but most importantly is that the _primary motivation_ for me would be _focusing in my tasks instead in the surrounding environment_.

Being surrounded by a different environment plus being immersed in my music with the noise cancelling earphones allowed me to concentrate better. I had nothing else to play with other than my tasks.

Offices can be loud, and to be honest I like that and also contribute to it, I think it creates a fun environment. You spend a lot of hours a day with the people in it, you better feel happy there, right?
But sometimes you may also need to get an extra doze of attention in what you're doing, [get into the zone quickly](https://hbr.org/2012/03/how-to-get-into-your-zone).

There's a lot of articles about _Hot Desking_ pros and cons, but that difference on the _primary motivation_ makes me think that I needed another term for it, thus I will stick with _**Desk Spot Hopping**_.

And I will be hopping between desk spots again, for sure.


Is there a definition already for this that I'm not aware of? Also, I would love to hear other's similar experiences, how was it? Would you recommend it? Some variants? Let me know in the comments :)


Cover image: Photo by [Paul Skorupskas](https://unsplash.com/photos/7KLa-xLbSXA?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash