15 Tips For Working From Anywhere

Whether remote or freelance: Quick tips for working from home, a cafe, and while traveling.

When it comes to being a freelancer or working fully remotely, you have the flexibility to work from anywhere. In my job, my boss told all of us that he doesn’t care where we are as long as we are in the daily meeting and get our work done.

But working from anywhere but home can be a challenge.

There are 3 basic levels to working remotely or freelancing. Check out a few tips for each level. And add your own in the comments!

Level One: Working From Home

There is level one, which is working from your own home. You have to get used to working at home alone (if you never have before), and create some sort of schedule and find ways to stay on task and not get distracted.

I have a few very specific tips for being a productive work-from-homer:

• Create a dedicated workspace. It doesn’t have to be an office if you don’t have space for it. But you DO need a dedicated “work area.” Maybe it is a desk in the living room or a spot at the dining room table or even a dedicated home office in an extra bedroom or den. No matter where it is, have a specific space that is your work area so that you aren’t migrating from couch to bed to random spot. It helps you be in the right headspace to be productive.
• Learn how to end your workday. Working from home means you are basically connected all the time. Learn to let that email wait until morning. Learn to STOP WORKING at 5 or 6 pm or whenever. Just stop working and then stop checking work notifications. That might be muting notifications after a certain time or just ignoring them. Give yourself relaxing time and permission to ignore work until the next morning.
• Create a routine. Even if your daily tasks change often, there are always ways to institute a routine. Maybe you get up, shower, make coffee, and then play with your dog for 10 minutes every morning. Maybe you jump right into work but always do your first few tasks in the same order. No matter what it is, having a set routine helps you get into “work mode” and also helps you stay on task throughout the day.
• Use to-do lists. When you’re first working from home, it can be daunting to make sure you’re getting everything done and meeting deadlines. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, deadlines exist. As you get used to working from home, you’ll find it is relatively easy to let yourself get distracted — sometimes a lot. Use to-do lists or calendar blocks or anything else to track what needs to get done and when — and then stick to it.

Level Two: Working From A Local Cafe/Park

Sometimes you just want a change of scenery! Almost everyone I know who works from home loves to take a day each week or whenever to work somewhere else. It might just be your own backyard or a pretty park or a Starbucks or that cute little bistro with good free wifi and great croissants.

• For the love of God, have (and USE) good quality headphones with a microphone bit on the cord. Make sure you are not having random sounds coming from your laptop or phone disturbing other people.
• Make sure you have a good wifi connection or a mobile hotspot. Test it before committing to working there. Or ensure you don’t need an internet connection to get your work done!
• If you have a lot of calls and meetings that day, it is not a good day to work outside the home. You cannot control the noise level around you, and a bunch of people in the background can be very distracting on Zoom calls. Besides, is there anything more annoying than trying to have a cup of coffee while the person next to you is loudly talking on the phone and not controlling their volume? Don’t disturb other patrons with your noise.
• Pay attention to your level of productivity. If you find you aren’t getting very much done but are just enjoying the location, it might not be a good place to work.
• Don’t just sit there all day and only order one cup of coffee. While the place probably won’t kick you out, it WILL annoy them that someone is taking up a table and not ordering stuff and just spending the whole day there. Order something every so often, tip the staff, and don’t sit in the highest traffic areas.
• Make sure your laptop is fully charged or bring a charger and make sure you have access to an outlet. If your laptop dies, especially in the middle of something important, you’re going to be annoyed and lose time working.

Mostly, working from any business is about being respectful to the business and also getting work done. Don’t overstay your welcome, don’t be constantly asking someone to watch your stuff, and make sure to buy stuff from the location. If you cannot afford to buy stuff and tip throughout the day, you should choose a different location.

Level Three: Working While Traveling

If you are a freelancer, you might want to travel but don’t want to stop doing all client work. If you work for a company, you just might not have enough PTO to take the whole time off and need to get some stuff done between being out and about.

When I travel abroad, I tend not to work at all. But when I travel domestically to see family, I always bring my laptop and usually work for a couple of hours in the mornings before doing family and friend stuff.

The first couple of tips here are the same as when you work from anywhere that isn’t your home office space. Then it differs.

• For the love of God, have (and USE) good quality headphones with a microphone bit on the cord. Make sure you are not having random sounds coming from your laptop or phone disturbing your family. They know how to annoy you right back and not let you get any work done.
• Make sure you have a good wifi connection or a mobile hotspot. Test it out, ask someone for the password in advance and make sure it works. Or ensure you don’t need an internet connection to get your work done!
• Pay attention to your level of productivity. If you find you aren’t getting very much done, you might need to relocate. If you’re trying to work in the living room but your brother is watching TV, try the patio or the dining room, or anywhere else. You’re the one working, so it’s your responsibility to find somewhere to work that isn’t going to disturb everyone else.
• Plan ahead for when you will work. For example, I tend to work in the mornings when I travel so that I have the rest of the day to hang out and go places. Since I plan for that, I do not make any plans or buy tickets for anything that starts early in the day.
• Plan ahead for WHAT you will work on (if possible). You know when you’ll be traveling, so attempt to plan calls for a time when kids won’t be running in and out of the room (maybe while they are at school or telling them to go outside, etc.). Reschedule calls if they aren’t time-sensitive or necessary.
• TELL your family that you need to work and to please leave you alone. If your family is anything like mine, your siblings will come in just to annoy you. Ask them to let you work for a couple of hours undisturbed. Let your mom know you can’t talk right now. Don’t be afraid to say, “Hey, I need a little more time working, I’ll be done soon. Please leave me alone.”
• Be flexible. Unless you are on a specific deadline, don’t be so inflexible that you ruin the plans to go to the water park because you insist on working that morning when later that afternoon or evening will work just as well. You’re on vacation! Have fun and fit work in when you can on some days. Other days, you’ll be able to stick to your schedule.

Understand that you’ll definitely be less productive than when you’re at home. This is simply a fact. When you’re around your family and just wanting to hang out, you just might not get as much done as you would when working from your office space in your own quieter and more predictable home.

Have a plan for either making up work when you get home, trying to frontload some work before you go, or just giving yourself a bit of leeway to make it up as soon as you can.

Be realistic about your ability to get work done

The point of flexibility is to be ABLE to work from anywhere. That doesn’t mean that working from anywhere else will be as effective and productive as when you’re in your own space at home.

If you try to plan to do tons and tons of work but don’t get it done, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Give yourself time and space to work but don’t beat yourself up over it if you get a bit less than you planned done. Especially your first time!

You will find your rhythm and figure out the ways you work best as time goes on, I promise!

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