You’ve never been to Europe. The Eiffel Tower seems nice in pictures. Everyone says real Italian food is otherworldly (and sleep-inducing). Budapest sounds cool, and you’ve always wanted to party in Mykonos. But you only have so many vacation days, and you can’t pull off the trip work-free.
You speak to your boss and reach an agreement where you can travel for a few weeks if you work from your computer on the road. But you’ve never worked while traveling before. Luckily, there are numerous resources for remote working out there to give you advice on how to approach it.
Here are ten tips to keep your sanity while working on the road:
1. Create a schedule.
In order to travel and work successfully, you need a regular work day, just as if you were going to the office. It’s hard enough finding a productive mindset in a new city and all its excitement, noise, and streets waiting to be explored. Don’t add odd work hours to that.
When creating your schedule, think about your personal biorhythm and when you work best. If you’re a morning person, knock out your work early and explore the city in the evening, or if you’re a night owl, go on morning or afternoon adventures before getting down to business.
2. Work where you work best.
Once you know when you’re working, think about where you’re working. Maybe you want to work where you’re staying, but what if your hotel room doesn’t have a desk, or your rented apartment doesn’t have WiFi? Do you work better in crowded cafes with ambient noise or do you need the quiet of a library?
Understand which environments make you most productive and do your best to work there. It helps if you can squeeze in an hour or two first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed in order to free up some more time during the day. So staying in a place where you’re able to work is ideal.
3. Bring the tools you need.
This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people mess this one up. If you’re working on the road, be sure to bring everything you need with you. Tracking down a specific charger in a foreign place can be a headache and set you back an afternoon (though it can be done if need be). It’s much easier to take what you need though, and even to take things you may not.
Apart from necessary chargers, bring headphones to drown out distracting sounds. If you use a tablet for work, consider getting a keyboard to use it more efficiently. Making sure you have what you need will keep you calm and working effectively instead of stressing over an impending deadline that you’re not ready for.
4. Prepare for travel.
Preparing for travel means a lot more than just packing your bag. When traveling to a new place, don’t show up without a plan and wander around. You’re not a recent college graduate backpacking across the world in search of “who they really are.” You’re working.
Research where you’re going. Before you arrive in a city, you should know where you’re going to stay and where you can find WiFi and spaces to work. Services like Airbnb can help you find a place to stay, and Foursquare can help you find WiFi in the city (as well as other things to do). Cut out stress and uncertainty, so you can focus on the work at hand or enjoying your travels.
5. Don’t multitask.
Sightseeing and responding to emails at the same time is a bad idea. Set aside time to enjoy your travels, and don’t be distracted by work. Keep work and pleasure separate on the road in order to work more efficiently and enjoy traveling more effectively. In short, don’t multitask. You’ll exhaust yourself faster by trying to work a little bit all the time, instead of working a lot in uninterrupted blocks of time.
6. Find ways to always be connected.
Assuming you’re not self-employed and work independently, you’ll need to be able to contact and be reached by employees, employers, coworkers, customers, and/or clients.
If you need to be available by phone, get a local sim card, which is much cheaper than getting an international phone plan. If you need internet access, you can try MiFi or tethering if you don’t have access to reliable WiFi. Consider investing in an Ethernet cable if that’s an option where you’re staying. It’s more stable and faster than WiFi anyway, so you won’t experience the connectivity issues that sometimes occur with a wireless network.
7. Communicate.
Now that you’re connected, you need to constantly be in contact with the people involved with your work. Since you aren’t in an office with them, you have to put extra effort into communicating with them. Your team should always know what you’re working on, what you just worked on, and what’s next. You should know the same about them. Instant messaging apps like Skype and Google Hangout are perfect for staying in touch with your team in an easy, informal manner.
Be aware of time zone differences and use sites like WorldTimeBuddy to know when you can reach people as well. The only way working remotely is possible is when everyone’s on the same page, so be sure that everyone is working together by talking to them.
8. Back your things up.
You know how people tell you to bring a copy of your passport with you just in case? There’s a reason for that. When on the road, it’s important to be ready for as many emergencies as possible, and luckily a lot of them can be managed with simple redundancies like bringing back ups.
Yes, bring a copy of your passport and also your ID. Keep your money in two places, but also keep your work in two different places. Back up your work on an external hard drive or store your progress in the cloud. Hopefully your computer won’t get damaged or stolen, but if it does, you won’t lose all your work at the same time.
9. Look after your body.
Traveling through new locations can be stressful and tiring, so be sure to get enough sleep and exercise. Try the Pomodoro Technique, which involves 25 minutes of work, followed by a 5-minute break, and use that break to stretch and move around before settling into the next 25 minute stretch.
Getting the blood flowing will help you maintain focus, and your body will thank you for it. If you’re looking for a full body workout, bring a TheraBand in your bag. Make time for your body, and you’ll have more energy to explore your surroundings and get work done while avoiding burnout.
10. Travel slow, travel wise.
While on the road, take your time traveling. If you’re working, this isn’t a vacation where you can go to a different city every few days. That kind of trip is too exhausting to productively work at the same time. Instead, travel more slowly if you can and spend more time in each place. Traveling slowly will help you find a daily routine that will help increase your productivity.
And when you do travel, travel wisely. In-transit is a great time to get work done. You’re not out exploring a new area, so why not work then to have more cultural experiences later?
When figuring out how to get from one place to the next, think about how you can work in transit. Maybe the speed of a flight is best for your work because you'll arrive at your destination faster. But maybe you have a layover that would detract from your ability to work uninterrupted, so a train or bus would be better suited to your work needs. If you won’t have Wifi while on the move, try to prepare yourself to work offline beforehand so you can still get something done.
Final Thoughts
When working on the road, remember that things will move slower. Your work will progress more slowly, and your travels will slow down too, especially when you’re first adjusting to working on the road. Don’t be frustrated by this slower rate of progress. Accept it as part of the travel/work experience, accommodate it as best you can, and you’ll find work on the road to be quite manageable.
Happy travels!
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