On a deadline? Why not grab a coffee at this Japanese cafe? Photo / Getty Images
On a deadline? Why not grab a coffee at this Japanese cafe? Photo / Getty Images
There's a cafe in western Tokyo that has been attracting writers, editors and journalists from across Japan. The Manuscript Writing Cafe, under the highspeed Chuo line in Suginami City, pours coffee for procrastinating writers under one condition:
You cannot leave until your work is finished.
As an added incentive, the writers are charged not for drinks, but only for their time.
There are 10 'hot desks' which are charged at 130 yen ($1.55) for the first half hour. This increases to 300 yen ($3.60) for every successive hour you spend, staring at white page. The desks can be booked by anyone suffering with writer's block. But they must first provide cafe owner Takuya Kawai with their name, writing goals and set a deadline.
The goal achievement notebook of the manuscript writing cafe records the tasks that the user has imposed on himself and the achievement time. 原稿執筆カフェの目標達成ノートには利用者が自らに課した課題とその達成時間が記録されています。 pic.twitter.com/jvMa5VSJSh
This is recorded and held over the writer. Additional services can be paid for, varying from hourly progress check-ups to the option of having a cafe-worker sit over your shoulder, coaxing you to finish.
Kawai says the bargain is entered "in order to maintain a level of focus and tense atmosphere at the cafe."
"What they thought would take a day actually was completed in three hours, or tasks that usually take three hours were done in one," he said.
You can bring your own food and drink into the space, even order a takeaway. With high-speed internet and unlimited self-serve coffee, you could happily set up shop for hours. Check your twitter, by all means. You'll pay for it later.
Of course there are the tortured souls who have been chained to the desk long past their target time. He says it is not unusual for people to stay long after closing time.
Nobody leaves, unless their work is done.
The Moscow branch of Zieferblat where visitors are charged by the minute. Photo / Supplied
Spending quality time
Cafes charging for time rather than cake and coffee are not unusual in other parts of the world.
Cafe Ziferblat, a Russian-Ukrainian chain of pay-per-minute hangouts, is extremely popular Eastern Europe. In 2014 they trialled the concept in an English speaking premises in London.
The theory of charging for time is to encourage cafes to be a more pleasant space to visit. Coffee drinkers are encouraged to play board games, help themselves to biscuits, maybe learn the piano.
Ziferblat - meaning clock face - charges 13c every 60 seconds. A charge that decreases over time, to give visitors greater economy over long stays.
Kawai turned this concept on its head for his cafe- racking up the pressure and the price on procrastination.
The Manuscript Cafe was originally an internet cafe run by Kawai. He hopes that the concept will spread, and that writers will use the space to create great works.
