From across the coffee shop, I noticed a gentleman walking in with a computer.

Not a laptop, mind you.

With both hands, he carried a full-on desktop, monitor and console included.Surely hes not…

I thought to myselfbut I was wrong.

Other coffee shopsbuck the trendentirely by not offering Wi-Fi at all.

Once you do, follow a few simple rules of etiquette.

If you gotta stay, at least order something extra to make up for this.

As a general rule, most insiderssay you should order a drink every 2-3 hours.

For example, say you plan to be at a coffee shop for four hours.

That doesnt mean you have to order $2 coffees every hour.

Just plan to spend $10 (or whatever fee seems reasonable).

This can be over a couple hours or all at once.

I like this option more because sometimes you just dont want to drink coffee every two hours.

This way, the coffee shop still makes a profit and you still get to sit and work.

Consider it as the price to admission.

Help them do that.

But its not; its a cafe.

Large meetings can easily add a lot of noise and distraction.

A coworking spaceis another option.

Similarly, most libraries have meeting rooms that patrons can book for free.

That means you should probably skip watching movies in the background or uploading or downloading a bunch of stuff.

This is a good time to remind you tokeep your data safe on public Wi-Fi networks, too.

Its not just Wi-Fi, though.

You also dont want to hog the electricity.

It changes when others might need to charge or the cafe is crowded.

My advice would be to gauge the environment and react accordingly, Murdough added.

Self-awareness goes a long way.

That said, a pretty universal rule is dont bring your own power strip or stretch cords across aisles.

That means using headphones to listen to music or watch videos.

Those conversations are twice as disturbing to other people with another voice coming through your tiny computer/phone speakers.

Whats more, libraries are awesome and patronizing them is an easy way to offer your support.

In most cases, you totally can.

But youre kind of being a jerk.