Late Night Work and the Airport

My late-night work sessions keep going. The deeper the night gets, the more focused I somehow become. My concentration has been especially sharp lately, and things move along at a good pace. I often hear that early to bed, early to rise is good for your health, and I try switching to mornings sometimes, but it never lasts. I end up working late into the night again.

Today I bought a magazine, and even now, back home, I still haven’t opened it. Lately the books I want to read keep piling up — I plan to get through a few once things settle down. I never seem to find the time, so the pile just keeps growing. I used to read at home, but at some point I started reading elsewhere instead — cafés, trains, anywhere but home.

The place I seem to concentrate best is an airport café. Airport might sound like a strange choice, but it’s fairly easy to get to, so a few times a year I find myself there, reading. Around Haneda there are barely any buildings or houses. There’s a certain sense of freedom in the air.

The Wi-Fi is reliable too, so on days when I need to do research on my laptop for hours, I’ll often head to an airport café to work. Things tend to go smoothly there as well.

I sometimes wonder why I can focus so well at the airport. Thinking about it, it feels similar to the focus I get late at night. Both are times or places slightly outside the ordinary — cut off from daily life and its surroundings. Everyone at the airport is on their way somewhere, and no one knows who I am. Maybe it’s this suspended, in-between state that sharpens my focus.