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Is your work getting in the way of your travel plans? Do you dream of waking up to beautiful sea views and incredible mountain backdrops but cannot because of piling work? Since remote working became possible, you don’t need to give in to the usual 9 to 5. Instead, you can have your cake and eat it by traveling the world, hitting your work KPIs, and balancing the two. How? First, you must get a valid passport, as remote working often involves staying in a foreign country for months. And since most countries only accept passports with at least six months of validity, getting the correct information about passport prices and timelines is essential. Let’s walk you through what successful digital nomads do to maintain their careers while vacationing all year – it’s possible!
Integrating Work with Dreamy Vacations
Post-COVID, many people have ditched their desk jobs for hybrid setups. And some have taken the idea and run with it, moving to other countries and ticking items off their bucket list, having come face to face with the reality of how one thing can alter the course of their lives. As a result, countries like Mauritius and Mexico have witnessed an influx of digital nomads. But how do these nomads manage the allure of fun while working?
1. Get the Sign-Off
Before traveling outside the country, you must understand how you will manage your business or career affairs. For example, you must liaise with your management and understand your terms if you are an employee. Your boss may require you to jump on calls or handle some matters urgently, no matter your location. In such instances, you may need to travel to a region with a similar time zone to avoid getting frustrated or missing out on important work events. If you own your business, you must understand how you will manage your affairs away from home.
Below are some of the most integral things:
- Understand the hours when you will need to be present,
- Delegate tasks that someone else can handle effectively,
- Have someone handle your bills when you are away, and
- Ensure you get approval to work out of the office if you are an employee.
These things may seem minor, but they help you create the best foundation for a sustainable digital nomad lifestyle.
2. Plan Your Working Hours
Once you are away from your typical environment, the urge to tour the new surroundings can be so great that you might forget about your work. And this can be detrimental to maintaining the work-fun balance. The best way to get ahead of this temptation is to plan your hours even before leaving the country:
- Figure out when you are most productive at work. Some people work best in the morning, others do well in the afternoons, while others put their best foot forward in the evenings. Carve out your best period and reserve this for your work, e.g., you can work from 8 am to 1 pm, then call it a day.
- List all the places you want to visit and their opening times. Then integrate them into your plan. Say you want to go scuba diving. You look up the best time and realize that the best time is between 6 am and 9 am. Your best working time is from 11 am to 5 pm. So, you book scuba diving, knowing you will have enough time to enjoy the trip, return to your place, and start work by 11.
The idea is to plan your trips around your work so you can still be effective, leaving the less productive times for fun.
3. Start Managing Your Time Better
There will be many places to visit, foods to try, and people to meet. And unless you have your schedule worked out, you can miss out on all these fun things. From the get-go (even before leaving the country), you should start understanding where you often waste time and how you can go about it.
Consider the following:
- Carve out time blocks where you focus on the most critical tasks. Using timers like the Pomodoro can help you set specific working blocks in which you do nothing but the main task.
- Reduce the time you spend on time-wasting tasks such as scrolling social media, checking your emails, etc. Instead of doing this periodically throughout the day, set a time for them. For example, check and answer your emails once a day, preferably once you have completed the main tasks.
- Limit meetings and calls– these seem necessary but are often time-wasters. Ask people to email or text you instead of calling so you can review the requests when you are less busy. Otherwise, you will spend a lot of productive time on things that do not help you reach your goal.
Consider using an app blocker that prevents emails, social media prompts, and other notifications from distracting you at work. The more you focus on your main tasks, the less time you use at work and the more free time you will have for fun activities.
Finally, choose a suitable hotel or apartment with a good internet connection. Working remotely requires top-notch internet access to move through your tasks quickly. If you handle sensitive information, consider getting a private internet connection to prevent breaches.
Did we mention having fun and leaving room for spontaneity? Yes, that too!
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