Do you work best at home? At Starbucks? Perhaps a Library? I do a lot of web design and development in my spare time, and I’ve noticed some interesting patterns in my productivity over the past few years. I used to think that I could work anywhere and be equally effective, but I’ve come to realize that my assumption was simply untrue.

I don’t work very well at home. As a matter of fact, I don’t even work well on my main PC (a fire-breathing custom-built Vista box with two widescreen monitors and an obnoxiously powerful sound system). I have a comfortable computer chair, a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, and everything that should turn me into a bastion of efficiency when I slide into the command center.

The problem is…I rarely do creative work there. At all.

At home, I typically find myself using my massive screen real estate to fiddle on Facebook and TweetDeck simultaneously. What a waste! I almost feel like the huge screens make me less focused. Believe it or not, I do my best work in Coffee Shops or unfamiliar work locations. On my two year-old work laptop, no less. No Photoshop, no 24” monitor, no fancy keyboard. Just my plain-jane HP notebook.

Imagine that.

Do you have a favorite location for your creative work? Am I the only one who doesn’t make good use of their desktop PC? Should I just stick to laptops?