One of the advantages of freelancing is that you are not confined to your office. Instead of spending days in the office from 9 am to 5 pm, a freelancer works any time of the day and anywhere – in a café, in a park or at an airport in anticipation of a flight. You can record a webinar, conduct an advertising campaign, polish your website and all this can be done on the way to Paris or Bangkok.
With today’s challenging economy, freelance and travel can be the best way to simultaneously enjoy life and make a living. The main question: how to freelance effectively while traveling?
Here are the ultimate tips on how to combine freelancing and traveling:
1) The most important thing is to allocate hours that you will dedicate only to work while traveling. At this time, no one should disturb you. Neither relatives, nor pets, nor TV shows. For example, I work for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. During the day, I do personal things. During my freelance hours, I do not check my personal mail or messages, and I answer only urgent calls from my business customers.
Depending on the scope of your activity, position, presence or absence of subordinates, you may have a different schedule. The main thing is segregate your working hours and the time you have for rest. You also need to consider whether the time zone difference affects your business. If you travel the world, some customers may be in a different time zone than you. Periodically, you will have to change the schedule or negotiate with clients and partners about the shift in your schedule. Sometimes, if you want to travel and work around the world, you will have to be up at night or early in the morning to get the job done on time.
In addition, the speed of your work is important. Some can complete their tasks in 2-3 hours, whereas others need more than 8 hours. If you work remotely, I advise you to optimize the workflow and try to make it as efficient as possible. After all, most likely, you are paid for the solution of specific tasks, but not for your time.
To streamline things, equip yourself with a separate workplace – a table or a corner on the balcony, for example. Also, try not to engage in professional affairs while wearing pajamas or bathing suits. To tune in to the working mood, you should have some appropriate clothes on.
2) Make a to-do list and highlight the tasks that require discussion with your colleagues or superiors. For example, if you call your colleagues at 10 AM every day, then by this time you should prepare all your questions for the projects. Then you will know exactly what to do even if your colleagues are out of office.
3) Do important and urgent tasks first. Unimportant and non-urgent things should be postponed for later on. It is possible that those low-priority tasks will no longer be relevant by the time you get around to them.
Importantly, you are not a carefree tourist. Your quality of life is directly dependent on money and work ethics. It is nice to swim in the ocean or climb mountains, but will clients feel the same if you do not deliver on your projects?
4) When making a to-do list, you should always indicate deadlines. And I advise you indicate that you need to submit your work one day before the actual deadline. This way, you will protect yourself, as no matter what kind of emergency happens, you always have at least one day to get the job done. This lifehack often helps me a lot
In addition, when traveling, it is difficult to find a place to concentrate on the task, especially if you are in a cafe or airport. Use headphones to isolate yourself from external noise and focus on work. There is nothing worse than missing a deadline for no reason.
5) Delegate! Yes, you do not necessarily have to be a big boss to delegate some of your tasks to other people, as even a typical freelancer can afford to outsource things. If you were in the office, your boss would be aware of whether you were doing the work yourself or not. As a freelancer, you can resort to the services of assistants.
For example, imagine that you are a manager for attracting sponsors. You get along with people, sell well by mail and through Instagram. However, you do not like to make presentations. Why not delegate this to someone else who could help with designing some great PowerPoint presentation. This is not going to be too expensive, and you will have much more spare time to enjoy the city you just arrived in.
Bio for Ryan Bronson:
Ryan Bronson is an Internet marketer and a top-rated writer at Eduzaurus. In the past, Ryan found it rather challenging to combine work and leisure, particularly when traveling to some picturesque countries and cities. However, over time he learned some tips and tricks, and in today’s post, Ryan shares his experience of managing time effectively when traveling as a freelancer. He is positive that any person can freelance if they work on their time management skills.