8 Lessons Learned After Working Remote For One Month (Workcation in the US)

Working by the pool, working from the Bellagio in Vegas, working from under a palm tree. Sounds good?
Well, I did it for a month. And here is what I learned from it

I run my own social media company, where I manage social media for small companies. The whole idea behind this company, was that I wanted to be able to work from anywhere. I decided to test this with a one month workcation trip to the US. I went to Canada as well, and I think I visited 15 states in total.

1 - WIFI - SCHMAIFAI

I made sure that every place I would stay at had WIFI. Well, they all said they had WIFI. But did they?
Not at all. Especially in the desert, there was little or no connection to the outside world. At some hotels they had limitations to what websites you could visit too. So one of my translation tools didn't work at that hotel.

Also, the speed of the WIFI was horrible, so when a customer sent me a file, and it took 23 hours to open it, you know you are in trouble.

2 - Cellphone data is GREAT, if you have service

I bought a SIM card when I landed in New York, day 1. And I paid for 30 days of unlimited data.
Well, it worked fine, but some of the more remote places I went to had NO service... At all!

3 - Vegas happens
Do I really need to explain this one?

You can spot the desk in the background.. But...

4 - Life happens

I was getting sick a coupe of days before departure. Bad coughing, sneezing, stuffy nose, a fever ++++
I was sick for 15 days! That totally ruined the holliday part in the beginning and also some of the working. I felt horrible, but I couldn't just do a couple of days in bed, because there was always a plane to catch or a roadtrip we had to do, to get to the different locations we had booked. That was not a great experience.

5 - Vacation happens

It's sunny, you have this ONE day with no plans and the pool is right outside your room. What do you do? Get work done, or go for a swim and tell yourself that you will do the work after?
This was a constant struggle. Also you need to go out for every meal, so that breaks up the work pretty often.

6 - No desk

I had a desk in some of the hotel rooms, but very I often I would find my self working from a bed, a coffe shop or something else. I am used to sitting at the office, on a clean desk and in quiet environments.

7 - Skype meetings at 1 AM happens

Due to the time difference between Phoenix and Norway, I had to do a couple of Skype meetings at night or early, early in the morning. Not exactly what you would want to do if you were on a normal cavation.

8 - Constant feeling of "I should've done more today"

Even if I worked for 3 hours, I still left my computer with a feeling of "I should have done just a little bit more."

Conclusion

Would I do a workcation again?
Absolutely!!
Do I need a normal vacation before doing it again?
Absolutely!!
Would I go to somewhere with the same time difference again (to work)?
Absolutely - not.

It was a great trip, and I'm so happy that I did it. But I have learned a lot of interesting leassons.
Also, I'm very grateful for the fact that I could pay for the trip with Steemit money, and my customers are so cool that they all said "have a great trip, we don't care where you work from." And although these 8 leasons sounds negative, it was a good experience. This is just some challenges that I wasn't prepared for. I'm VERY grateful for this opportunity, so don't get me wrong here.

On top of just my regular work for my own company, I also started a part time, remote working job for a Swedish tech company. And it just so happened to be, that my first days at this company was also the first days of my trip. That was probably the reason why I was so stressed the times where I didn't have WIFI, because I was scared that they were trying to get a hold of me.

It was bit hard sometimes, to just go back to my room and do some work, while the people I was hanging out with did other things. But then I just told myself "okay, I am here in this great place, with full salary, I have to get this done."

Have you ever tried working remote? How did it go for you?

Susanne