Wherever You Go, There You Are

The average American commute is 25.4 minutes, according to the US Census Bureau. That's nearly an hour a day, or 200 hours a year, spent getting to and from the office – and then some if you live in places like New York. Oh, and it costs $2600 a year. Commuting is just one of those necessary evils, like death and taxes. Or is it?

With rent and property values trending ever higher around the nuclei of major urban centers, an office worker pays a premium to have a more manageable commute, which keeps them in a job, which keeps them close to the city, and so on. As remote work becomes more plausible for more people, I wonder if young, ambitious professionals will still default to urban lifestyles and the expensive quality of life inherent in being in a hub. If millenials gravitate to remote working, what could this mean for urban real estate values and for demographics of desirable non-urban areas and more affordable second cities?

I think about this a lot, as I am preparing to move to a non-urban environment for the first time in my adult life. I've been running my own business entirely remotely for a few years now, and I find that I feel calmer, more inspired and energized when I'm by the ocean. I'm moving somewhere people go on vacation and/or dream of retiring to. I don't see any reason not to situate myself in a place I love, when I can work with clients from all over the world, and when it's more affordable than living in the city, which just doesn't do it for me like it used to.

If you didn't have any constraints around where you could live and work, where would you go?

Office Supplies for the Digital Nomad

It took me a while to get fully unpacked after two months abroad. I'm not known for "packing light" but in my defense, I brought along some key items that made workcationing possible. Here's my short list:

#1 most crucial Officelessness travel gizmo: Skyroam portable WiFi hotspot ($99.99). With 24-hour internet passes for just $8 each, you can connect most anywhere where there's cell coverage. I set up the AT&T Passport Plan on my phone, which gave me unlimited international texting and relatively affordable calling, but the data allowance was paltry (though there are lots of tips on conserving data and their international specialists are very helpful, too). I’m grandfathered into an unlimited data plan here at home, so I have no concept what amount of data checking email or social media or navigation apps uses (hint: a lot more than what the plan offers). Skyroam’s battery life is only about eight hours, but with a backup battery pack, you’re good to go, all day long.

Visiting multiple countries meant all different kinds of outlet situations. The BESTEK Portable International Travel Voltage Converter made things easy with plug adaptors and USB ports galore. One of my travel mates lamented its high-pitched whirr, but I wouldn't have noticed it, myself.

Having a separate checking and credit account for the trip was a good way to keep track of expenses on the road. Capital One Venture Credit Card has no foreign transaction fees and earns you points for travel expenses. The interest rate sucks, so as long as you pay it off in full, it's worth it. Capital One checking accounts also have no fee for international ATM withdrawals.

Three more things that made my trip easier and more comfortable: Merrell walking shoes, Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones and the Etekcity Luggage Scale.

Sartorial appeal: Limited. Complete comfort: Priceless

These + Ambien = airplane ZZZ's

Hanging luggage scale: Baggage overage fees are real

What are your must-brings when you go abroad?

Time is on my side, yes it is.

During my two months in Asia, I was usually 12 hours ahead of the east coast, which meant that I would wake up as my hometown partners were wrapping up their work days. Having every email of the day in front of me to tackle at once was great for scheduling my priorities and focusing on getting it all done before heading out and living my day. Counter this with the tedious trickle of email that comes in as you refresh throughout the day – chunking out your work is clearly the productively superior way to attack the day. Seeing as I typically don't work on demand (I've instituted fees for such requests), there's no email I'm going to receive that's time sensitive within 12 hours of receipt. If you habituate your clients to expect instant responses, that's the cycle you're stuck in – one that's particularly problematic if you ever travel to other time zones, drive your car a long distance or go to the dentist.

Good morning, world!

Another time-related revelation: my first week home I was jetlagged, waking up at 4:30am every day. WOW. The work I was able to churn out between 5–9am was amazing. No calls, emails, chats or texts coming in and that general peace and quiet of pre-dawn. Then, from 9am to 11am I'd do all my admin stuff: making phone calls, running errands, and BOOM! From noon on, the day was mine. Truly, it was like I was given a whole new day within my day. Sadly, I've fallen back into my pre-Asia ways, and am craving those morning power hours. 

Travel ≠ Vacation

a little bit of this

As glamorous as it may appear on Instagram, traveling requires constant effort – and the rigors of running a business don’t stop when you board that plane. Being jetlagged, exhausted or simply wanting to play the awestruck tourist means nothing to your clients, many of whom are working in an office and not particularly sensitive to the “plight” of the digital nomad.

... leads to a lot of this

I’m three weeks into my two-month Southeast Asian sojourn. Unlike last year, when I set up shop in a WiFi-enabled casita in Costa Rica for a month, this winter I’m making the rounds. With each stop on my itinerary, I’ve got ample baggage to juggle, multiple modes of transportation to negotiate and periods of uncertain internet coverage… followed by brand new scenery, cuisine and customs at which to marvel, and also foreign currencies, weather patterns and time zones to assimilate. 

This morning, I woke at 4am to catch a flight from Manila to Ho Chi Minh City, only to see a calendar alert for a meeting, and a missed call from an HR person of a business I’ve been courting for months. My time-difference related calendar snafu left me feeling disoriented and somewhat discouraged about my ability to world travel while working full time. I earn my living on doing what I say I’ll do to make my clients’ lives easier. It’s my job to work around their schedules, and me playing hard to get is not cute. I tried time zone apps like Miranda, TimeBuddy and Klok, which should have helped me out, though Google Calendar takes it upon itself to make funky time zone adjustments, and to be honest, my general disorientation deserves most of the blame here.

Yep, travel takes you out of your both your time and comfort zones: showing you new things and challenging your ideas of the way things are, and who you are. This happens to me every day I’m on the road – and for that, I know I am #blessed. 

Business (Super) Casual

From nine years in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform to head-turning rock chick getups in high school and college, clothes always played a part in my experience in the world. One iteration for which I hold no fond memories: the obligatory early-career "business casual" phase: can't-miss office essentials that made me feel like I'd lost myself. With the goal of fitting in in a corporate setting to make my way in the world, donning pastel button-downs and black loafers seemed like a fair penance at the time, but getting dressed in the morning often felt more like a punishment than a pleasure. 

A decade after those fateful trips to Marshalls that lined my closets with employee-handbook approved garb, I don't work for anyone anymore, and so off to Dress for Success those garments go. Left to my own style devices, do I dress like Nancy Spungen or some fabulously eccentric baroness? Now and again, sure. I also like a nice Armani blazer as much as the next gal. But most days, I'm into athleisure, like the rest of the world. Yet another benefit of working for yourself to which I am grateful daily: dressing how I want when I want.

Learn the Lingo: Virtual Companies & Distributed Teams

Many newer officeless businesses are branding themselves as Virtual Companies. Online-based companies like Buffer work with a Distributed Team of employees pulled from a global talent pool – selecting candidates based on merit and fit rather than proximity. Money saved on office overhead goes toward tri-annual work retreats in beautiful locales all over the world. I'd take that over unfettered Keurig access any day, wouldn't you? Distributed Team jobs often include benefits, insurance and all the other trappings of a full-time job, and as such, you're as committed to your company as any regular employee. Just because you don't walk into a building five days a week doesn't make you a "freelancer" – a term I no longer use, deferring to consultant or independent.

Older, more traditional companies often balk at letting employees work offsite, even if there's no practical reason the tasks can't be completed remotely. Taking a hard line against progressive working arrangements is costing these companies access to the most in-demand talent. According to the following survey from The Creative Group's 2016 Salary Report, flexible work, remote work and liberal vacation policies were crucial to work-life balance satisfaction. 

While remote work is a perk, it's also a responsibility. Employees become their own managers, keeping track of their time, schedule and inter-office communication on top of the output required for their job function. Working proactively, with agility and agency, and being responsive and reactive even if the proverbial boss isn't actually looking over your shoulder requires discipline – and your work needs to speak for itself. You're not sticking it to the man when you fritter away hours on Facebook. Every minute you lallygag comes directly out of your own account. It takes focus, but removing your commute alone makes it more than worth it. 

I think we should start seeing other copywriters.

I lost a client. This happens all the time, and there's usually nothing personal about it. Needs change, projects end. The nature of having clients is that they come and go, and often they come back again. The loss of this client was a little more impactful than usual: I've been working with them for about three years, the last two of which, completely offsite. They've gotten busier, which had meant more work for me for a while, but a new manager was installed and decided a full time, onsite copywriter was necessary. My feeling is that writing is a solitary act, and that more doesn't get done in an eight-hour day than a two-hour sprint, and that having a communicative offsite resource is a cost-effective way to get high-level copy without paying a person to sit and use Facebook 40% of the workday – along with covering their taxes, health insurance, vacation/sick time, etc. That's my angle, and of course, there are factors in any office situation of which I am completely ignorant, being on the outside. In this case, they'd already decided they needed a person and hired someone. So that's it. 

This gig had been very steady work – and the income from it alone was enough to cover my basic expenses every month. Losing it is a shame. The bright side? I get a chance to rethink the way I want to work. Unlike the majority of my project-based work that I can schedule out over a month, this was an on-call client. I'd receive emails throughout the day of things that needed to get done, and I'd charge an hourly rate. So I had to be accessible, all the time. Monitoring my email throughout the day, even on vacation, prioritizing on their projects when I'd already scheduled time to work on something else. I was happy for the income, so I never said no, but now, if I can avoid it, I'd rather not work this way anymore. Save for the occasional last-minute addition/print deadline, writing copy doesn't have to be a down-to-the-wire task – I'm not an ER nurse or a breaking news journalist. The rest of my clients, who've been onboarded more recently than this one, are acclimated to a 30% rush fee on deliverables due under one week from request. I don't always charge it, but it dissuades them from not looping me in sooner.

Anyway, it's been a relaxed week with far fewer Trello notification emails coming through. I'm excited to figure out what I'll do with that time. I have quite a few ideas. When things get quiet, that's when I start to hustle and the really cool stuff starts to happen. 

Daylight Stealing Time

If you've ever worked in an office, chances are you've at least once helped yourself to more than your fair share of the seemingly endless resources onsite: ballpoint pens, sticky notes, legal pads, and the like. A victimless crime, assuredly. As a remote worker and business owner, I am guilty of the constant pilfering of one of my company's most valuable resources: Hours. I choose to use an additional 2–3 hours a day sleeping in, on the regular. Even with our recent hour backward shift – of which I am conscientious objector – I'm currently in a pattern of sleeping until almost 9am every day. This may make me the envy of some, but it's not without shame that I admit what feels like an excessive indulgence. 

When I worked a regular job, one of my least favorite aspects was the rush hour New York City subway commute from Williamsburg to Midtown, and the non-creative, sleepy, jostled and sometimes even violated state it would put me in, most days. As such, years after leaving the standard in-office schedule, not unlike a child allowed to eat ice cream for dinner, I continue to prioritize the pleasure of extra sleep more often than not. The only person this "hurts" is me, which makes it a hard habit to kick – patricularly considering one could argue that sleep is indeed good for you! I end up making up the hours when other people are winding down – evenings and weekends – which can cut into time I get to spend with the 9-to-5ers in my life and put a wrench into the cultivation of a normal work/life balance. My current game plan? I'm using the Sleep Cycle app to slowly shift my wake up time a bit earlier every week.

Placed on your mattress, the app uses your phone's microphone to measures your movements throughout the night and wakes you at a point in your sleep cycle where you are most likely to emerge ungroggy and ready to face the morning. It's pretty cool. What will I do with these morning hours? Breakfast, yoga, brisk walks... it's my time, I can use it however I want.

Leaving on an Airplane (Mode)

Of all the hacks I'm obsessed with right now, turning my phone on airplane mode from 9pm–9am is probably my favorite. When you work for yourself, you can fall into the habit of being always on call. Really, how productive can you be after a certain point in the day? By dedicating blocks of time to focused work (I've been using the Pomodoro Technique – more on that soon...) you earn yourself the right to set aside time that's truly your own to rest, relax and set intentions for yourself – professional or personal.
By not looking at your email first thing when you wake up, you're setting your own pace for the day – not working on someone else's agenda. Each day, upon rising, I've been writing Morning Pages – three longhand pages of random thoughts, weird dreams, nagging situations... it serves as a way to clear the pipeline for the day. I follow that up with a liter of warm lemon water to get a jump on my eight glasses a day, flush out toxins and alkalize. I then do 20 minutes of Headspace Meditation ("A gym membership for the mind") to keep things in perspective. Then it's coffee and breakfast, and THEN, only then, do I flick off airplane mode and see what's trickled in overnight and as my clients begin checking off their to-do lists with tasks for me. 
As much as technology connects us to other people, it serves to disconnect us from ourselves if we let it. It's time to take back the night (and morning!) for ourselves. Work productivity increases when we preserve our internal reserves.

Productivity is the New Yoga

My definition of what I need to cultivate a "healthy" lifestyle is shifting. Of course, being active and eating right are key to stable physical health – which feeds mental health. Over the years I've integrated myriad wellness habits to the point where they are inherent in my everyday. What I'm digging into now – voraciously reading about and integrating into my life – are happiness habits and productivity boosters. Everything from morning rituals and journaling; to apps and extensions that organize processes like to-do lists, finances and workflow. It's too much to go over in just one post, so I'll be sharing them piecemeal as their impact unfolds on my general well-being and mental fitness... Maybe it's the change of seasons, or the space that comes from my relative solitude in shoulder-season Cape Cod, but I am #obsessed with streamlining my creative processes and business growth right now. 

A Primary Residence of One's Own

My last foreseeable beach-houseguest just set sail on high speed ferry back to town, which leaves things feeling a little what's-nextish over here at Officelessness' floating HQ. When you work for yourself, remotely, the location question is an open-ended one. There's no commute to factor in, no colleagues to miss, no place with a wifi connection and a bedroom to rent off limits. You can go where the wind takes you, which might sound pretty nice, depending upon where you're at.

Pick a Portland...

Any Portland.

But then, there's that thing about roots. Community. Consistency. Popular wisdom suggests that someone my age should work toward owning a home. I love the Boston area for many reasons, but real estate is not what you'd call affordable, particularly for a single person in the first few years of running her own business. Anything semi-comfortably within reach hovers around 500 square feet. Sort of uninspiring to imagine my grown-up life of cooking fancy dinners on a stove overlooking my bed. I try to envision a life anywhere from Philly to Portland, Maine (or Oregon, really); Salem, Mass to Santa Barbara. Proximity to nature is important, as are things to do and good food. Decent weather is plus, but I'm hardy New England stock, so I'll take what comes. And of course, price is a factor, as are taxes, crime, solitude, proximity to people I know... It's near-impossible to narrow it down to that "perfect" place and put down roots. And so I flit from place to place, until I find a reason to stop. Is Residencelessness is the new Officelessness?

Across 110th Street... the rent is too damn high

I lived in New York for the better part of my 20s, until I left in 2011. Like any breakup, I was bitter at first, reacting with nonchalant dismissiveness toward my ex. "Oh yes, New York is fine if you want to live in a place where your identity centers around your location... but I'm more focused on developing myself as an individual." Or, "Yeah, I was tired of the rat race, I'm past that stage of my life. And besides, it's really not what it used to be..." Blah blah. Truth is, it is the greatest city on earth, for what it's worth. But also true is that being there uses up mental energy and financial resources that could be channeled into other facets of life – which, in some cases and on some days, can translate into "boredom" – the one thing NYC doesn't offer.

With infamous housing costs and changing demographics – and a move toward more flexible work arrangements – one wonders if New York will always be the destination for opportunity seekers it's been since its inception. A friend of mine started a real estate site called NeighborhoodX, which recently got some ink in the Post playing up the notion that you can live in surprisingly vibrant places around the world for less than you can in NYC. We're talking prime neighborhoods in Paris, London, Madrid – you get the picture. With lucrative remote work opportunities on the rise, one can earn a living wherever, live anywhere (or even in multiple locations), and allot however little toward the cost of living as is viable to be safe and happy. Sure, you might not be able to get green juice and chia seed pudding delivered to your office, but you can make your own, at home, and use the savings toward a down payment on a house you can afford. It's all a trade off, but it all depends how much living in New York is worth to you. 

Your Phone's Off the Hook, But You're Not

August on Cape Cod is like Christmas at Macy's, Springbreak in Cabo and Mardi Gras in NOLA, all rolled into one. Not really. It just takes 30 seconds longer to pull out onto Route 6 and the wait for lobster rolls is approximately 75% longer than you want it to be... That said, I've been super busy entertaining a rotating cast of houseguests, who I've been enjoying immensely – but when 12 hours go by and I haven't looked at my laptop once, or I've been out of LTE range for more than an hour out on a boat or at the beach, I start to feel this innate sense of mild panic, the one that reminds me that I should be working – at least a little bit, at all times. I experience a low-grade nagging even on the days where everyone has off: national holidays, long weekends, vacation days. With no boss or manager to keep you in line, an independent contractor is 100% responsible for staying on target with deadlines and not letting emails linger too long, unreplied to. I fight a perceived stigma that remote workers spend their days lallygagging, and so I attempt to preempt that line of thinking by replying instantly to emails and project requests. That's part of what makes me a great asset to my clients and also part of what I need to work on for my own peace of mind. 

I'm Not on Your Vacation

[cue the tiny violin choir...] Yesterday, I spent the entire day indoors. It was a beautiful specimen of a Cape Cod day: birds chirping, waves crashing, sun warmly shining behind a pillow of puffy clouds. But there I was, slumped on a futon, shades drawn, concentration musak blaring, churning out a day-late assignment rife with moving parts/details that had I strayed for even an hour to go for a dip, I'd be left to backtrack over piles of papers and draw the work out all the more. By the time I hit send and emerged from my cave around sundown, I felt like a visitor to a new planet – eyes blinking, lungs hungrily filling with fresh air, positively parched in a way which only a mind-numbing beverage could quench. 

This is not ideal. My ideal day goes something like this: 

8am – wake up, make a nice breakfast, meditate, do the 7-minute workout, followed by 15–30 minutes of yoga.
9:30am–12noon – Sit in on one or two conference calls, sift through and send emails.
12noon–2pm or so – Focus intently (read: stay off Facebook) on work, completing and submitting assignments that are due. (I rarely work ahead, sigh). 
3–6pm – Head out to enjoy late-afternoon lazing on the beach/bike riding/running errands around town.
6–7pm – Catch up on the emails that came through during the afternoon, maybe send out invoices/pay bills/etc.
7–9pm – Dinner at home, on the beach or at a restaurant – this is when I tend to socialize – a key component to not becoming a very weird hermit.
9–11pm – Enrichment – reading, working on a crafty project, or, admittedly, catching up on TV shows I was too busy to watch first time around. 

No matter how you work, keeping a schedule makes a huge difference. It's not always easy, like when peeps from all ends of the earth make their way through the Cape on their hard-earned August holidays, and the call to while away a day on the beach with them is louder than a seagull's squawk. When I take a full day off to play in the sand, I have to make up for it at some point, hence yesterday's lockdown. Life is about balance: being able to enjoy the moment one day and hunker down the next. 

Rover, Wanderer, Nomad, Vagabond... Call us what you will.

Today I had a Skype interview to potentially participate in Hacker Paradise, a floating coworking space, wherein you pack up your laptop and live and work with a group of other remote workers for two to twelve weeks in far-flung locales, working independently, and in tandem to create community and foster new ideas. They set up mini campuses everywhere from Costa Rica to Berlin where freelancers can work together, play together and learn together. The next trip is to Tokyo, followed by Taipei, then, who knows? 

Another pilot program in the same vein: Remote Year, which just kicked off its inaugural year on the road, each month bringing workers along for a once-in-a-lifetime experience of working around the world in a different locale every month. Their next year starts in February in South America (Montevideo, Uruguay) making its way through Europe and ending in Asia in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam. 

More of a loner? NomadList and its Digital #Nomad Chat Community serve as a forum to communicate, troubleshoot and to get inspired for your next work/life destination. How fast is the WiFi in Phuket? Is Riga a safe place for women working solo? That kind of thing is calculated and searchable on NomadList. 

So with a group, on your own, for a fortnight or a year – if you can break away and make money doing it, life can be like a working vacation (my favorite kind). 

Stay Positive, Stay Productive

When I left my last full time job, just over eight years ago (WOW!), I assumed I'd soon enough be back in a full-time position somewhere, but it just never came to pass. I grew accustomed to hustling for different gigs, cobbling together a schedule of project work, replete with midweek downtime and working weekends. At first, grocery shopping or going for a hike on a Wednesday afternoon felt inherently wrong, like I was shirking responsibility or playing hookie or that I was some under-employed slacker. And working on a Sunday – the good Catholic school girl I am – well, that felt off, too. 

This way of working, on your own schedule, in your own environs, is gaining in popularity and acceptance in the world, but us digital nomads need to work on our own self-acceptance out here in the wilderness. One great you're-not-alone resource is Remotive – a newsletter created by an employee of Buffer, a 100% distributed team employer. 

Replete with weekly productivity tools like playlists that increase concentration to remote job listings, it's a must-read. 

That's it for Officelessness for this week – tomorrow is my birthday, and no matter what you do for work, you should take that one day each year to turn it all off, which is what I fully intend to do. As for the Saturday after, well, that's fair game. 

(In)voice Your Opinion

Among the many joys of being your own boss is setting your own rates. I work with many clients, in many different ways. Some are charged an hourly rate, while for others, I set a project fee which includes the discovery/research phase, along with two sets of revisions. On the rare occasion that I'm required to go onsite, I set a flat day rate, regardless of time spent working.

Just yesterday, a client requested my presence for an hourlong in-office meeting, which – by my calculation – warrants a full day's pay. When you factor in the travel time to and fro, the prep and the unwind, the meals on the go, and of course, the shifting of other work and life priorities to allot my full attention to one client on any given workday, it all adds up. If a client doesn't want to shell out for a full day, there's always the GoToMeeting conference call/Google Hangout route, which suits me just fine, and saves them money to boot – but I can't blame my clients for wanting a little face-to-face now and again. 

No matter how you charge, it's key to be upfront about rates beforehand so there aren't any surprises when you submit your invoice. That's where the handy dandy Budget Proposal comes in – but that's another topic for another day. 

#Rethink ––> Revolution

Sara Horowitz, founder of Freelancers Union (http://freelancersunion.org), launched the #Rethink series on January 10, 2012, with an open discussion on how freelancers can help build the next fair economy. To watch the Q&A from this talk, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FfELe1IR8E.

Here in its infancy, I'm beta testing Officelessness on the people I always turn to – one of which being my colleague and frequent collaborator Ben Spear, who suggested I watch this talk (see below) he attended in early 2012 with Sara Horowitz, founder of Freelancers Union. As a both community and viable way of working, the concept of "freelance" has made epic strides since even just a few years ago. We have access to healthcare (Thanks, Obama) – which gives us one less reason to stay tethered to a corporation; and an ever-increasing number of progress-enabling technologies like Squarespace, MOO and Wave that empower people to create professional consumer-facing personae to grow their own businesses. Hats off to Ms. Horowitz for pioneering with legislation designed to promote equality for independent workers to thrive in the world today. 

Always Out of the Office

The birds are chirping and the beach beckons... But there is much work to be done! Based on reactions to my Instagram feed, I think people assume that I've somehow found a way to not work at all. But oh, how I do work! Every day, I stay connected to clients around the country, reacting quickly and efficiently to their needs as they arise; cultivating new connections wherever possible; invoicing, editing and marketing my own work in tandem with creating marketing solutions for my clients.

My work is never done, and nor do I want it to be. So often I'm asked how I've created a work life that follows me wherever I go, from Cape Cod to Costa Rica – and with this here blog, I intend to share my experience as a full-time freelancer and all the freedoms and responsibilities that come with the territory. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing how other people find balance in the privileged and modern way of working that we call freelance.