When I tell people I’m a freelance writer without a traditional home base, that I move around whenever I want to and work from wherever I want to (in normal times, anyway), I think sometimes they get the wrong idea. “I’d love to do that,” they say, and share a daydream of lounging on a beach with their laptop.
It’s tempting to plan a workcation in the face of indefinite office closures, to envision exploring a new place without having to fork over valuable vacation time in order to do so. But what I’ve learned in three years of trying to mix work, pleasure and travel is that a workcation is not a replacement for a holiday. Traveling while working, or working while traveling, is not the dream. The ultimate dream is to separate them entirely.
Slow Travel
In Kassondra Cloos’ new column series, she shares the revelations that come with “slow travel,” adventures that emphasize making time to absorb the life around us, to experience places and people and cultures, and be present in where we are and not where we could be or where we’re headed next. Check out her previous columns here.
Whether you’re hoping to spend a week working from a cabin in the mountains where you can get in a few ski runs before clocking in on Zoom, or you’re trying to plot out a year-long adventure of working from 100 cafes around the globe, my suggestion is to practice your work-life balance now. Set boundaries with your manager or clients — say, you’re not going to answer emails at 10 p.m. or before 9 the next morning. This kind of work creep can be extremely difficult to avoid, and even more challenging to fix once you’ve set a standard that you’re available beyond the confines of a traditional office day. But it’s never too late to start anew.
A few years ago, when I was new to freelancing full time, I took a month-long trip to Europe — without taking vacation days — to visit friends in a handful of cities and get a change of scenery from the desk in my Boulder apartment. I visited seven countries while simultaneously having the busiest working month of my freelance career. By the end of the trip, I was exhausted from doing phone interviews late at night, answering emails at 2 a.m., and constantly searching for Wi-Fi.
On my last day in Stockholm, just a couple of days before I was scheduled to fly back to Denver, I sat in a café and wrote myself a letter that went something like this: “Do not do this again! You may look back at this month and think about how you saw so much, but truly, you were so exhausted. This was not what you wanted. You were forced to trade money for time, and time for money, and this is not what traveling is meant to be. Yes, time is money. But time is also time. And that’s a resource worth protecting.”
I’m not going to tell you to cancel your planned workcation. It can be lovely to change your surroundings and put you closer to things and activities you love. But the way to do it is to work more efficiently so you have more time to enjoy those non-work experiences, not to stretch out your days and answer emails by the fireplace or between taking laps of a frozen lake on ice skates.
Here’s my advice, if you want to give the workcation a shot: Thoroughly investigate your lodging options for work compatibility. Choose a place where you can create a designated work area and use it, even when you’re sending and answering emails. When you go for walks to explore the neighborhood, put your phone on airplane mode or leave it behind. Turn off work email notifications on your phone; if it’s urgent, they’ll call or text you. And if you’re tempted to check your work email “after hours,” ask yourself how urgent it is for you to respond. Can it wait till morning? If so, hold off. Set your boundaries and then obey them.
If you take one thing away from this column, let it be this: You do not want to be the guy on the beach with the laptop. You want to be the one whose laptop is securely stored in their rental home, hostel or hotel room, out of sight, out of mind. You want to be the guy who is enjoying that beach to its fullest.
The Link LonkDecember 21, 2020 at 08:00PM
https://ift.tt/2WxxzwW
How to create the perfect work-life balance when constantly traveling - The Know
https://ift.tt/2VuKK1x
Work
No comments:
Post a Comment