5 realities of workcations I wish I would have known 3 years ago
How you can make the most of the travel-work combination
I used to idealise workcations. Like many others, I had this mental image of me sitting in a cozy cafe with stellar Wi-Fi near a beach.
Last year I worked remotely from five different continents and the reality looked a lot different — especially the Wi-Fi part.
#1 Your routines get messed up
Routines that seem to work really well for you at home are challenged as soon as you are in a different environment.
You probably can’t take your usual (home)office with you. This often means that there won’t be any ergonomic chairs, standing desks, big screens, or favourite tea cups.
Starting to work feels much harder when your usual prompt to focus is missing. For me this is my favourite mug, a notebook, and a clean desk.
Routines are good. They help you wean off decision fatigue and strengthen willpower and discipline. Without my usual routines I tend to:
- Get distracted a lot easier.
- Eat more junk food.
- Drink less water.
And yes, all of these contribute to my mood and well-being.
How to sort this out
You can start thinking about your daily habits before you leave. Do you have items in your environment that signal to you, that it’s time to focus on work? For me — apart from my laptop — it is my notebook and a mug, but it can be your water bottle, headphones, pens, your ergonomic chair etc.
Next questions you can ask yourself is — can you bring this item with you on your trip? I usually don’t bring my favourite mug — I am worried that it won’t survive the journey — but I can bring my travel mug or my water bottle instead, which also works for me. I am all about keeping my routine to get into the flow.
Not everything can be easily replaced. If big screens, ergonomic desks or an office environment are really important for your focus, you could also look for co-working spaces, or quiet cafes in the area.
I would generally recommend to look for places with a desk, reasonable Wi-Fi and possibly a place to cook — unless you want to eat out during the whole duration of your stay.
#2 Timezones
This issue is closely tied to routines. If your day is structured around meetings and talking to clients, you should be available at certain hours.
If you are a morning person, you will find travelling eastwards easier, in comparison to night owls, who will prefer travelling west. This might not be the sole reason you decide on your workcation destination.
Travelling a bit further — meaning more than five hours — time differences will require you to restructure your day quite a bit.
How to sort this out
As good as the peace and quiet may feel, to work while everyone on your team is sleeping, you need to consider shifting your day if you are planning on participating in meetings.
- Prioritise the meetings you want or have to participate in, and do not forget about the time you need for prepping and debriefing afterwards. Ask yourself if you can or want to shift your working hours to the evenings or nighttime.
- Think about how you structure your day at home and when you are most productive. Can you use the time-shift to your advantage?
- Do not forget to take time off! Yes, this sounds weird — after all, this is meant to be a workcation, so partially a vacation. However, you feel much more inclined remain stay available for your team during their normal working hours.
#3 Travel Days
On vacation, switching locations is part of exploring. Working remotely adds logistical difficulties to switching up the scenery.
Will there be “good” Wi-Fi at your next destination? Will there even be a desk? Do you have to be available during the actual moving of locations, and will you have data on the road?
Do you have to finish some work before check-out at 11 am. Who ends their work days at 11 am anyway? I need at least another two hours in the lobby to finish this up and talk to my colleagues, even if there is a bit of background chatter at this place.
Urgh, and it is so annoying working from an armchair and not an actual desk!
But hey, I am still privileged to work on the road #blessed #livingthedream
Yes I have done my fair share of last — minute work from hotel lobbies or cafes. It often is not ideal and I do not enjoy the stress and hassle of it. So the simple advice is — don’t do it!
How to sort this out
Really think about when you want to be on the road. It is okay to slow down your travelling and establish basic routines. It is not solely a vacation, plan for time indoors and plan activities like you would in your free time at home.
#4 Fear of missing out, commonly known as FOMO
This is real, and it works both ways.
This is the FOMO everyone is thinking about when it comes to workcations:
- It’s a beautifully sunny day, and you want to enjoy the beach, but you have a meeting in 30min. Been there, done that.
- It is sunny outside, and your friends want to do a jungle hike; too bad you gotta finish that report.
This is the FOMO nobody is thinking about before their workcations:
- You are in the mountains, and you just received a notification to look something up real quick but you have terrible reception. So it takes you forever!
- You just want to check on your team and get sporadically sucked into work mode throughout the day.
I am guilty of checking in on my team in the queue to board my flight to Singapore. Usually everything is fine, but this time it was an issue that could not be fixed in 2min. Luckily, it was not a big deal and could delegated to another qualified team member— urgh, stressful!
How to sort this out
- Communicate with your team when you’ll be working and when you’ll be switched off completely to avoid getting sucked back into work.
- Make sure there is someone available that can take over, if you suddenly become unavailable — this should be the case anyway. Even as a team leader you should never be a bottleneck, I mean what if you sick.
- This trusted person and your team should know, who is in charge, if you are unavailable.
- Prioritise your tasks . Yes, you should be doing this anyway — but it’s all the more important when a beach or a city is waiting to be explored.
#5 Workcations are not Vacations
Working on the road, I often feel like I cannot fully embrace the place I am in — this is not a simple vacation after all. With all the distractions and timezone shifts, it also feels like I am not giving it my 100% at work either.
So you end up feeling guilty because workcations are neither 100% focused on work nor 100% focused on vacation. They are somehow in the middle, but isn’t that the work-life balance everyone is talking about?!
Final Thoughts
It is a privilege to be able to go on workcations and it is not for everyone.
Manage your expectations — your own and the people coming with you. Don’t go on workcation with friends and family expecting this to be a vacation with you. This will lead to frustration on their and FOMO on your end.
Plan ahead, and schedule your away — hours in your calendar and communicate who the responsible person to take over is, in case you become unavailable.
Take your time and enjoy working from somewhere else for a change. Get used to new routines and environments. It can be fun to explore new hobbies or restaurants in your free-time.
Workcations are not as carefree as I thought they were, but with the right planning and managing, I would not hesitate to take advantage of them and I hope you won’t either.
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