Work and Travel: How to Stay Productive On the Go

If you’re living your best life being a full-time digital nomad, then this read’s for you. There’s a very fine line between vacationing and working remotely. If you often feel distracted and find it hard to work and travel at the same time, here are 7 ways to stay productive.

But First, Why Work and Travel in the First Place?

Remote work doesn’t necessarily have to be “work from home”. A lot of people choose the digital nomad lifestyle instead. Let’s agree on one thing first: the 9-5 life doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why some people choose to work and travel instead. 21 days of vacation per year isn't enough to many, so can you blame us?

However, the work and travel lifestyle may be tricky. You can easily fall victim to the aftermath of the improper balance. If you fail to maintain a healthy balance between work and travel, you’ll either find yourself a victim of burn out or you’ll find yourself missing deadlines and eventually, losing clients. So, how do you find the perfect balance?

7 Ways to Stay Productive as You Work and Travel

Learn Time Management

If you’ll go back to your life after this blog post with one takeaway, then it’s that time management is key. If you manage your time right, you’ll be able to get work done and enjoy the rest of your trip exploring and satisfying your wanderlust. Wasn’t that the goal?

There are plenty of ways to do so. For starters, wake up early – the earlier you start your day, the more time you’ll have to get things done. Also, try to maintain a healthy routine. It doesn’t matter what that routine is – there’s no right or wrong way of doing this. Just go with what works best for you and what serves your purpose. 

Get a Planner

A great way that’ll help you manage your time better and keep track of your to-do list is keeping a daily planner. It may sound old-fashioned to some of you, especially since you get all your work done online using only a laptop or a smartphone. But trust us on this one, there’s no way better at remembering things than writing them down – nothing beats the old-school pen and paper. 

Productivity Apps

You don’t have to go old-school all the way – technology was made to make our lives easier after all. We highly recommend you start using some productivity apps, so let us recommend some of our favorites:

Time Management: 

Toggl Track is a desktop app that’s perfect for project planning and time tracking. If you’re a freelancer who works on an hourly basis and needs to track time spent per project or client, this app’s for you. It’s also great for online entrepreneurs who outsource services from freelancers and need to keep track of time dedicated to each task. 

Project Management: 

If you have a team of your own, then you need a project management system to be able to delegate tasks, keep track of who’s doing what, and what still needs to get done. The most popular three options that most digital nomads have agreed on are hands down Slack, Trello, and Asana.

Scheduling:

Are you an online coach or does your remote work involve a lot of online meetings? Calendly is a great way to help clients schedule calls with you by booking available days and time slots on your work calendar. Google Calendar is also a must-have as it allows you to keep everything synced with your phone calendar. 

Did you find these suggestions useful? Make sure to check out our list of recommended productivity apps for small business owners for more options.

Write Down Your To-Do List the Night Before

Before you go to bed, write down the tasks you want to get done the following day. In the morning, if more tasks come through, you could add them to your to-do list. But this way, you’ll have everything laid out in front of you in advance and this will help you stay organized and plan ahead.

Start With the Time-Consuming Tasks

Wasting too much time on emails and miscellaneous tasks is not a warm-up to get you motivated to start working – this will only distract you. How many times did you find yourself procrastinating as you go through your inbox? Of course, you have to check your emails early on, but only the important ones. Instead, when your energy levels are high, use that time to get the most challenging tasks on your to-do list done. Do you know these daunting tasks or the time-consuming ones? The ones you’ll probably leave for the following day because you were too lazy to finish or get to in the first place. 

Make Time for Networking

Try to find an opportunity to network wherever you go, even if the setting doesn’t seem like it’s a perfect fit to promote what you do for a living. You’d be surprised at how many business opportunities could arise from just turning mingling into networking. After all, it’s called work and travel for a reason!

Don’t Forget to Take a Break

Last but not least, don’t fall for the 24/7 hustle and grind lie. Yes, being an online entrepreneur and a digital nomad could be much more work than a regular 9-5. But we must not forget that our bodies have limits, and if we exceed them, we’re doing more harm than good. How can we be productive when we don’t give our bodies and minds the rest they need? Balance is vital – remember that!

So, how do YOU stay productive as you work and travel? Leave a comment below and share with us your best productivity tips.