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Are you a travel lover? Have you ever tried combining work with a vacation destination? Is it possible to be productive while working remotely from an exotic place? In this article, I touch on the definition of workation, describe the benefits of workation, and give tips&hints to do it effectively.
Are you ready? Let’s start the journey! 🌍
Workation definition
First, let’s define workation. It is exactly how it sounds. Working in typically vacation destination: work + vacation = workation. In essence, it is taking a break from your usual place of work, but not from work itself. Think of it as a trip designed not just for exploring international destinations but also for productivity and personal and professional growth.
You seem to be ready to escape the unwanted cold and rainy season and go on workation, don’t you?😎
Benefits of workation
In terms of workation, there are so many benefits, and I’d like to focus on them. I divided them into health and happiness, freedom, and productivity. Let’s dive deeper into:
#1 Health and happiness
An undeniable benefit of workation is improving health conditions as well as happiness. New places to visit, new activities options to do, and even the chance to taste different foods - all those things boost a better mood. Beautiful surroundings or being in a new place releases endorphins, which make people relaxed and happy. Everyone may have different preferences regarding location, weather, culture, food, etc. But it’s incredible about workation that you can choose the place where you feel the best!
And, what type of vacation destination gives you the impression, “Oh, God, I am happy to be there”?
#2 Freedom
You can work from anywhere, and it’s so exciting! I know that when you are trying to explain to your grandma or grandad that you are going to Spain and you will work from there - it sounds to them like a science-fiction story. But it’s the benefit of our times - remote reality gives us this freedom to work from any workation destination.
Additionally, on workation, you have no household responsibilities, commitments, and other “home” distractions. During working hours, you can entirely focus on work, but right after you close your laptop, you can take handfuls of the beauty of the place you stay.
Does it sound to you like a plan?
💡Learn more: always bear in mind Cyber Security Risks: Best Practices for Working from Home and Remotely
#3 Productivity
Many people claim that being amongst beautiful places can help to enhance creativity and better work quality. A change of scenery may help people be more refreshed. If you only have such an opportunity, leaving the house monotony behind for some time is good to catch a new view of personal and professional issues. As long as you do it right, experiencing workation may improve your performance and productivity.
📚Read more: dig into How to Apply Self-Motivation in the Workplace
I hope that by giving you these descriptions above, I abandoned a myth that during workation, people cannot be effective. To gather more evidence, let’s check what practitioners say about effectiveness and productivity while on workation ⬇️
How to work and travel at the same time - tips & hints
We asked our employees who go on workation regularly how they dealt with concentration and how to stay focused on their daily work while there is such a beautiful ocean or charming castle in front of them.
Ignas, our Head of Partnerships, highlights it as crucial not to mix workation with regular vacation! The trip should be long enough to balance working and traveling. Otherwise, you will stress about spending too much time working in the apartment (and not seeing all the foreign beauty) or completely failing to focus due to new distractions.
Another thing - don’t jump into the works right after your arrival. The hype is so big - that it's more effective just to relax for a couple of days and get the initial excitement to sink. This would let you start the working routine with a smile rather than impatience to finish the working week and "finally" do some proper sightseeing while the sun is still shining ☀️
To stay productive, you should have a well-organized daily/weekly plan. While some of us are used to going with the regular flow and staying longer hours, especially when the deadline is near - this would be the last thing you want during workation. So bear in mind that you will need to work twice harder as you will want to meet the deadlines.
Another piece of advice comes from Beata, our Senior Content Writer, who gives us hints from Portugal:
First of all, it's important to create a boundary between work and vacation. It's good to know what time of day you work best—I learned that I work most effectively in the morning, so I start at 7 am and still get a few hours of sunlight when I finish. As I had a very specific amount of time that I needed to fully dedicate to work, I also became more efficient in using my time.
The second important thing I discovered was that if you start getting distracted in the house, pack your stuff and go somewhere else. This can be a cafe, a coworking space, a park, or even the poolside. I found that it really helps to change the environment in order to stay concentrated on your tasks.
Monika, Talent Acquisition Leader, shares her tricks on how to plan and organize yourself on workation:
To keep yourself productive, it's worth maintaining elements of your regular routine while being on workation. I like to plan my calendar even more precisely and in detail than usual - to not let any task slip away and to be sure that my working day is well separated from the time I'll spend enjoying new surroundings. To avoid distractors, check beforehand if the place you are going to stay at has a space suitable for work and a good internet connection.
Last but not least, insights went from Olek, our Head of CX, who spent amazing workation in Tenerife and seems to became an ambassador of this location:
👉 Keep a balance: When you work in a different time zone, it’s important to establish a routine that works for both your work and travel commitments. It can be challenging, but it’s worth it! I stayed in a place with just one hour difference from the main office, but it still affected my calendar a bit, especially with the meetings happening later in the day.
👉 Get things done: I had a strict list of things that needed to happen, both in my work projects and in my travel plans. It was important to be realistic about my workload and assess what tasks I could accomplish while traveling. Sometimes, it meant delegating tasks or working with colleagues to ensure that my workload was manageable. But I made sure to prioritize work so I could enjoy my travels guilt-free. And let me tell you, taking a break from work to explore new destinations was amazing!
👉 Stick to a routine: Establishing a routine can help you stay focused and productive while still allowing you to enjoy your travels. I made sure to wake up at the same time every day and stick to a consistent work schedule. This way, I could finish my work tasks and have the rest of the day to explore new places, eat delicious food, and meet new people.
👉 Get solid insurance: No one wants to think about it, but accidents can happen while traveling. That’s why it’s essential to have reliable insurance, while you’re abroad. It saved me once, and it gave me peace of mind to know that I was covered.
With these tips, you can work and travel at the same time and have the time of your life!
Key takeaways
To recap shortly recommendations from above, we have a few tips about how to be effective while workation:
- Don’t jump into the works right after your arrival. Allow yourself to take a breath!
- Create a boundary between work and vacation.
- Schedule your day/week in advance and work within hours when you are the most effective.
- Prepare a TODO list and prioritize things.
- If you find distractors in the house, consider packing your stuff and working from another place (e.g., cafe, coworking space).
- Be sure your place has a good internet connection - possibly check out the place in advance.
- Get solid insurance - you never know what can happen.
Workation - a healthy trend?
As we see, workation is a healthy trend that allows you to work from anywhere. And there are some methods to organize both work and travel.
Why don’t you try to beat the monotony and work from a sunny place while there is a winter and -5 degrees in our country? It seems like such a warm way of boosting motivation! The results may be surprisingly effective!
