Plan your best remote work experience ever
✅ TL;DR Planning remote work will be easier after these tips. Sharing my top advices to make realistic, down-to-earth remote working experience. Just fill the blank [your industry]
📣 Question to you, dear reader 📣
→ Did you ever confront any obstacles from your employer when applying to work remotely?
As a tech sales guy working in the big tech space, over some years, I’ve had the privilege to travel for work and also work remotely for up to 30 days a year.
There have been definitely two sides to such an experience, so in this article, I considered creating a list of things I’ve found useful and/or wish I knew how to make the most of such a remote trip.
Mind you, I’m writing this from an employee perspective so there are obviously rules for me to comply with my employer company I cannot reveal to a full extent.
Feel free to DM me if there’s something you would like to get help around remote working practicalities 👋
Let’s dive in 🛫
#1 Assess - what’s your job? 🙇♂️
This may sound obvious but assess what your job looks like daily. Can your work be done asynchronously? I.e. you can complete your tasks without being dependant too much on your colleagues? If all you need is a computer and Internet, there’s a chance that you qualify to work remotely, regardless of whether you are based in your home town or Cape Town.
Speak to your manager. Come up with an exact plan for how you will work to help them to understand the big picture.
Often, all manager cares about is:
you do your work on time and with comparable quality
no complications will occur to him/her
#2 Check - traveling rules of your employer 🏛️
As long as you work for an employer, you must comply. By default, and in many cases - law actually allows considerably more remote work possibilities.
Because of this, employers do not want to advertise them too much because it would mean more paperwork and a headache for their HR.
This is because it would probably result in employees requesting all kinds of “special treatments”. Hence - we have to comply.
There’s always a way to question these policies but in big established businesses, there’s a 9/10 chance you won’t be able to play in your favor. I’m talking here things like promising your employer to “stay in a safe place” or “pay for your own healthcare”.
I have tried these without any luck so far. Every time I got bland answers such as “we aren’t allowed because of taxation or equity policies”… along those lines.
I suggest to inspect the following things first:
Research how many days it’s allowed to work abroad
Do you have to use all the days at once or split them into multiple stays
Is there a list of restricted countries you cannot work remotely from?
My experience
I currently receive 30 days in the calendar year. It is quite common for companies registered and paying taxes in Finland. This means that if I would choose to work abroad for the whole of November of 2024, I can take another abroad-remote month already early next year in February.
There’s also a list of countries I cannot at the moment work from. These usually follow the “sanctions list” that most public companies (at least US-based ones) comply with. I don’t know what could potentially happen if you would work from such a country (like Russia or Ukraine), so curious to hear about any experiences 👀.
#3 Choose - remote destination wisely 🎯
Oftentimes we tend to overrate destinations based on our imagination.
Stop it early! Believe me, those picture-perfect sand beaches are by far NOT the best place to work remotely when it comes to overall productivity.
Consider these factors when selecting a destination:
Is it effortless to travel there with your citizenship? 🛄
Language-barriers? 🌎
Access to the healthcare system? 🩺
Big time zone differences? 🕓
Weather conditions? 🌧️
I won’t mention overall costs or accommodation because this is subjective and varies for every reader, but you get the point.
My experience
As an EU citizen, my go-to choice for spending remote work time in southern Europe like Spain is a sensible option. I don’t have to do any paperwork, the currency is the same as in Finland, I have access to the public healthcare system and the time zone is relatively the same.
I know the fundamentals of Spanish which helps everyday survival considerably. I can go to the beach if I decide to, but definitely not bringing my laptop there.
Why you won’t want to work in an exotic setting?
Imagine working in a bad posture with tons of people lying on the beach around you, screaming and kids playing, sand going all over your laptop… maybe even breaking it, getting hit by the volleyball from those same kids… and not seeing a heck from your screen because of the sunshine… 😵
Still exited? Yes? No? Let me know your opinion in the comments. Maybe there’s a hack I’m just not aware of yet.
When it comes to me - I take time exploring coworking spaces in the area or invest extra money into booking a decent apartment where you can work comfortably.
#4 Stick to the routines while remoting 🎡
Working in a new place can and will affect our mental state. C’mon, at the end, we are moving to a completely new place! This will inevitably stimulate our minds to work differently, creating new neural pathways that will rejuvenate cognitive abilities and even fight against brain aging.
However, remember that you’re not going on vacation in the first place.
Work essentials go first, so you can enjoy the second: because good times and exploration are, naturally, part of the journey. That’s why you wanted to relocate in the first place.
But.
To manage both work and leisure time effectively, I cannot emphasize enough the power of routines, at least loose ones.
Try to stick to approximately the same routines as you would at home. This could mean maintaining habits like:
daily physical activity
going to sleep and waking up around the same time
eating healthy
Not calling out for perfectionism here, but the 80/20 rule will be enough.
Not following these isn’t detrimental per se. But you will surely start to see diminishing productivity returns if you decide to be all over the place and not stick to discipline long-term.
🏁 Summary - good planning is already half of great remote work experience
Working remotely can feel overwhelming, especially if you haven’t done it before. The key thing is not to stress about it. It certainly was the case for me but the described systematic approach has worked for me.
If you’re working for someone, you will have to comply with at least local government rules. Doing stupidities is not an option that could potentially lead to you losing your job.
Go thoroughly all the rules, understand your rights, what things you’re allowed to do, only after then pick up the destination but be realistic in your choice.
If in doubt, start small, and explore possibilities with your employer. Perhaps, you could take a small step like traveling within your residence country as a first-time experience? For me, that would be going, for example, to Lapland.
Successful remote work experience is real if you keep it simple, stick mostly to common sense, and maintain healthy routines most of the time.
At the end…
…traveling and exploring is the best way to grow new neural pathways in our brain. It can do wonders: if you hated your job - you may start liking your job again, learn new cultural things like language, make new connections, friendships, and perhaps - find even a new purpose or fulfillment in your life.
If those do not happen, at least you had a great stay outside your home comfort zone 🤗
Happy remoting planning 🙋♂️
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