If you’re scrolling through your Instagram and stumbling upon digital nomads sharing picture-perfect snaps of their life, you may think that working remotely while travelling is super easy. While this lifestyle has many perks indeed, being away from home also brings a slew of difficulties with it.
An article of interest:
Working from home and working remotely has offered people the opportunity to reclaim the time they used to spend commuting.
We have been able to focus on ourselves, our hobbies, and our relationships by working from home. Moreover, working from home can sometimes be done just as well… away from home.
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Have you spent months or years working remotely from home, only to wonder whether you could work remotely from a hotel near a national park for a week by sacrificing a few ‘actual’ vacation days? Or maybe a friend’s rural cabin? Or a ski house owned by a family member? Or maybe a hostel halfway across the country?
The good news is that you can actually take your remote work on the road and work just as efficiently from somewhere that will pique your curiosity and encourage your wanderlust.
Here are some tips on how to work remotely while travelling around the world.
Make a remote work schedule or a remote work routine and stick to it
Start by building a remote work schedule that will keep you on track and allow you to be productive and efficient.
Because you don’t have colleagues or managers looking over your shoulder at what you’re doing when you work remotely, diversions abound. Distractions happen to the best of us, so adhering to a 9-to-6 weekday with brief breaks is often a good idea to increase productivity and efficiency.
It could be so tempting to sleep in, and it’s even easier to stay up late if you know you don’t have to wake up at a particular time. However, you’ll soon discover that getting up on time sets the tone for a great day.
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Become a member of a coworking space
Joining a coworking space is another way to make sure that work gets completed on time, so you don’t miss any deadlines. Anyone who prefers a stable work environment that is more conducive to productivity than a cafe or restaurant might consider joining a coworking space.
As most remote workers already know, cafes sometimes lack enough power outlets, have a lot of noise from espresso machines, making it impossible to make phone calls or close early.
Joining a coworking space can help you enhance productivity while also providing a sense of community. Besides having a quiet place to work, you can share insights, develop your professional skills, hear about new job offers, and expand your network by meeting other people who work remotely.
Choose your preferred way to work remotely while travelling
Part of the allure of the digital nomad lifestyle is the freedom and independence to organise your days and lives in the most convenient way for you. This means that there’s no one size fits all approach to working remotely while travelling.
It goes without saying that the quintessential digital nomad is the self-employed freelancer or entrepreneur whose work may be completed entirely online. Programmers, web designers, virtual assistants, bloggers, and internet retailers are just a few examples of those who typically work remotely.
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However, employees are increasingly being given the ability to work from home. Companies are beginning to recognise the advantages of having a remote workforce, ranging from happier employees and higher productivity as a result, to saving money on office rental costs, to being able to recruit people who are truly the best fit for the job without having to consider proximity or location.
Travelling when self-employed is typically less difficult because the job is already set up to be completed entirely online from the start. Even firms that are glad to allow their staff to work from home are still ironing out the wrinkles in terms of establishing processes, communication, timetables, and information sharing with their remote employees.
On the other hand, being an employee typically comes with benefits such as health insurance, pension plans, dental insurance, life insurance, paid vacations, and sick leave – all of which freelancers must arrange for themselves.
Going fast vs. going slowly
If you have a long list of countries you’d like to see and can’t decide which ones to prioritise, you could be tempted to move every couple of weeks. That’s typical, especially when you’re fresh to life on the road.
You’ll quickly learn, however, that a remote job isn’t less work. And, as exhilarating as it is, hopping from place to place requires time and energy and can become exhausting. You’ll also soon discover that you’ll have less time to see everything.
Finding your personal work-life balance, your ideal routine, and your most productive periods is crucial. Can you work from any place, even on a plane or bus? Can you function on five hours of sleep? Do you have a morning routine, or do you prefer a more flexible schedule?
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Also, you need to ask yourself how much you want to immerse in a place’s culture, people, foods, and sights? Seeing the sights and eating your way around town is easy; learning about the culture and making friends with people is not.
You’ll need to experiment, analyse, and tweak until you find your ideal digital nomad habit and travel speed. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, whether it’s two weeks, two months, or even a year.
Bottom line
Even though many offices begin to reopen, remote work isn’t going anywhere. If you’re looking to try the digital nomad lifestyle or learn how to succeed as a remote worker, it’s important to have a solid plan first. Remember that working remotely can be a difficult adjustment for people who are used to the structure of an office job. Your mileage may vary, of course, but with careful planning, you should be able to enjoy all the perks of working remotely while travelling around the world.
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