https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/how-to-crush-a-full-days-work-in-two-hours-in-a-group-full-of-strangers
2025-08-31
Lee Siew Hua
Assistant Life Editor
The Straits Times
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Do a full day’s work in two uninterrupted hours, and crush your to-do list by 9.30am at a “Type-A Breakfast”.
Zany idea, I thought, when my photographer friend Immanuel described how he often signed up on the Peatix platform to start work at 7.30am in a cafe, side-by-side with strangers deemed Type-A professionals and entrepreneurs. In two focused hours, he said, stuff got done.
I considered it. No distractions, no social media, no procrastination. Just silence, a cup of good coffee and the companionable energy of like-minded busy-bees, first thing in the morning.
So in early August, I took the plunge and signed up for my first Type-A Breakfast.
I was hopeful, since I love novel experiences and am on a constant quest to maximise my day. Besides, working in a cafe may be a nice change to my routine and, trained by the newsroom, I can work in all circumstances.
Still, there’s always room for skepticism in a journalist’s mind.
Before the weekly Wednesday event, I dutifully looked up the Type-A Breakfast template, which suggested prepping six tasks to accomplish in two hours.
The template also highlighted Pareto’s Principle or the 80/20 rule - 80 per cent of our results will likely arise from 20 per cent of our efforts - and Parkinson’s Law, in which work expands to fill the time allotted.
In that spirit, I identified the day’s most consequential 20-per-cent work.
List made, I set my alarm, a little glumly, for 6am.
First thing in the morning
When I showed up the next day at Craftsmen Coffee in Clarke Quay Central, I found organiser Nicholas Gerard at his laptop, deep in work.
I apologised for being tardy - hardly Type A of me. Nicholas oriented this newcomer in hushed tones, offered the Wi-Fi password and answered newbie questions.
“Should I get breakfast now or later?” I ventured, wondering if my priorities were already misaligned. Regulars tend to order later, he responded gently.
I checked if I could get the Peatix-arranged 10 per cent discount for my first drink. No discount at Craftsmen, as it turned out, but only because it was a stand-in. The usual venue, Kwaasong Bakehouse on Central Boulevard, was hosting a private event.
Work then began in earnest: head work, writing and editing. The clock was ticking fast, but I was making a discernible dent in my tasks.
Coffee machines hissed non-stop, but the ambient noise was welcomed. I didn’t care for the music, but it was less distracting than the ceaseless interruptions of an office or home.
At 9.30am, Nicholas called a hard stop. Released from the intensity of work, we started smiling and chatting with Raven, a creative and a regular. Often a late arrival, like that morning, she cheerfully self-identified as Type-B. Soon, we were riffing about her Taiwan travels.
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Nicholas, who manages business development at Peatix, and entrepreneur Melvin Yuan, who has since moved to San Francisco, started Type-A Breakfast in 2016.
Pre-Covid, these free-to-attend work huddles were staged three to four times throughout the week. Overseas chapters were set up, often by relocating Singaporeans, in places like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Tokyo, Barcelona, Taiwan, and even Estonia.
Mid-week sweet spot
After a hiatus, the breakfasts restarted recently in Singapore. Nicholas chose Wednesday morning as the sweet spot for a mid-week boost.
“There is a magic to starting at 7.30am,” he said. “I get some stuff ticked before the chaos of the day begins.”
Over two more sessions at Kwaasong, new faces appeared. Both times, I met Ms Johanna Tay, chic owner of a real estate company. “I am Type A for two hours, so I can be Type C the rest of the day,” she figured.
The concept sticks because full focus is expected, indicated Ms Tay, who joined the breakfasts five, six years ago. “It’s like being in a library. You know you can’t take calls.”
Ms Tay uses her two-hour block to tackle neglected admin work like bill payments as well as to conquer bigger projects.
Recently, she started her Masters programme in real estate at the National University of Singapore, and is now thinking of debuting the breakfast on campus for her classmates.
Beer marketer Edwin Yang, by contrast, embodied overachiever vibes. The gung-ho first-timer showed up at Kwaasong at 7.10am, “because my bus was early”.
His two-hour workload was done and dusted in 70 per cent of the allotted time. He had also planned eight tasks instead of six. “Some tasks were done in five minutes, such as assembling data,” he explained.
Mr Yang, who does not have an office, knew exactly why he aced it: The breakfast broke routine. It conferred a clearer sense of purpose.
‘It’s not for me’
But Type-A Breakfast is not for everyone. A married couple working in logistics popped by Kwaasong the other Wednesday, after dropping off their kids. The next Wednesday, the wife walked in alone, her husband having declared: “It’s not for me.” In contrast, she pictured the breakfast as a “mental gym”, akin to an all-in workout.
Even my friend Immanuel no longer attends, mainly because he lives in the east, a distance from the CBD where Kwaasong is housed.
He is never short of productivity hacks, however. The first to wake up and the last to sleep at home, he works mostly when wife and daughter are in bed.
Similarly, my friends and colleagues brim with productivity go-to’s. Early mornings are popular. So are lists, whether sprawling in notebooks or apps. One team mate tries to write every story way in advance so there’s time to “sleep on it”, which results in first-rate copy.
One editor poignantly quipped: “My productivity hack is to put my daughter to bed!”
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Meanwhile, I have tried to make Type-A Breakfast my own. After compliantly assigning myself six tasks the first time, I whittled that down to three, then just one.
That solo task was to write this column, or a great deal of it, in the prescribed two hours. Last Wednesday, I was overjoyed that my word count kept jumping. By the time I left, I had a robust draft of 850 words, not too far from my finish line of 1,100 to 1,200 words.
I was content that 25 per cent of the draft was lustrous, finished text. The rest was a vigorous enough outline with a smooth sequence and shortlisted quotes, with proper context and all.
My plan: deploy two more super-early hours the next morning to wrap up the column at home.
It didn’t happen.
Third Spaces, cool vibes
I think I know why. Looking back at my three breakfast experiments, a change of scenery, a new vibe and a mini-community had lifted productivity.
Like the other larks at the cafes, I had set parameters for the day. We had a sense of mission. Perhaps we were powered by self-coercion, which wasn’t not a bad thing.
I thought of Nicholas forcing himself to wake up, or soldiering on alone if five others cancelled on a rainy day.
I realised too that I like the non-predatory or organic networking, after our two hours were up. I learned that Kwaaong was a side hustle for Mr Chan Wei Jie, who’s in crypto. He conceptualised Kwaasong as a Third Space and a speakeasy-to-be, so he’s happy to host Type-A Breakfasts and NFT parties and, one day, beer tasting when he gets an alcohol licence.
“Tech and food go together,” he reckoned. Soon, he was tossing ideas with Edwin.
It was lovely to step into an early-riser subculture, and explore a domain of Type-A aspirants who strive but have a life.
I will not do this every week. But I can see myself coming back occasionally to vanquish deadlines with coffee and companions.
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Lee Siew Hua is Assistant Life Editor at The Straits Times. She edits the Design & Living section, creates omni-channel partnerships and writes Sunday opinion columns.
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