Work From Anywhere In The World By Following These 9 Tips
Written by Ben Robinson
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Untethering yourself from the office and finding a job that allows you to work from anywhere is an increasingly popular trend. In order to be effective, though, remote workers need to adapt to their lifestyle. I’ve put together a quick guide of 9 tips I believe will benefit anyone who wants to work from anywhere.
RELATED: 7 Distractions When Working from Home and How to Avoid Them
Work from Anywhere Tips
Buy a Power Bank
As a 100% mobile worker, your laptop is your entire livelihood. And if it runs out of power, you may as well not have one at all. Carrying around an external battery with hours and hours of extra power makes it a lot less likely your battery will go dead while you’re out.
Power banks aren’t exactly cheap — a decent one will probably cost well over $100. But if you think about the extra work it will probably help you to get done; the power bank should pay for itself after only one or two uses.
Work In Public
Staying focused while you’re not at the office is hard. There are a few people that can do it without a problem, but most of us struggle to stay on task if nothing is making sure we stay on-task.
An easy way to keep yourself from slacking off is by working in a public place like a library, a coffee shop, or a co-working space. Sure, you could still pull up a movie on your computer, but you are probably less likely to do so if you cannot relax in privacy.
Cut Out The Noise
Random outside noise is generally an impediment to work. A lot of people like to listen to ambient music while they work, and some prefer silence. Either way, find a quiet environment (bustling cafes are not recommended) and hunker down.
Another way to control the noise is to buy a pair of headphones with active noise-cancelling technology. Whether or not you want to listen to music through them, put them on, and turn on noise cancellation to eliminate audible distractions.
Don’t Work Casual
People sometimes endorse the work from anywhere lifestyle with sentiments like “you can stay in your pajamas all day and work from your living room!” From-anywhere workers can indeed do that, but they definitely shouldn’t if they want to be happy and productive.
Instead, try to make your workday as formal as at a traditional office job. Get up at an appropriate time, shower, get dressed in work clothes, and head out of the house to wherever you’ll be working that day. Maintain a schedule once you’re there.
That is not to mention the negative mental health implications of never leaving your house for work.
Travel Light
The mobile office that you carry to and from work every day should be lean and mean. Having to lug around heavy equipment will dissuade you from moving around a lot, which has two adverse effects:
- You will settle on the first workspace you find rather than one that suits your mood because you’re not in the mood to snoop around if you need to transport a heavy bag.
- During the day, you won’t be as willing to pack up your stuff, go outside, and take a twenty-minute break. Not doing so is unhealthy and will ultimately cripple your productivity.
You may not even be aware that a heavy workstation is affecting your working habits, but it almost invariably affects decision-making.
Buy a High-Quality Bag
There are few items on earth that take as much of a beating on a regular basis as the bag belonging to a from-anywhere worker. And because of that, having something constructed with durable fabric, quality zippers, and lots of sturdy pockets is very important.
A high-quality bag is also lightweight, which is pertinent to the previous point.
Get a VPN
If you’re going to work from anywhere, you’re going to be working on a lot of unsecured wi-fi networks. That’s a severe security risk unless you find a way around it. And the best approach is buying a subscription to a VPN, a service that basically gives you a private connection that looks like it’s coming from anywhere in the world.
A VPN will also allow you to access any content you want from anywhere you are. For example, I recently visited Vietnam and wanted to get some work done from there. I found I was blocked from certain sites, however. I turned on my VPN, and it was no longer a problem.
Learn About Phone Tethering
If you have a smartphone with a mobile data connection, it will likely have a tethering feature. You can send your phone’s mobile internet to your computer as a wi-fi connection by toggling a setting.
Anyone wanting to work from anywhere should learn how to tether their phone if they don’t know already. Most commercial locations these days have wi-fi, but a few do not. It’s also crucial you’re able to use your laptop’s internet while you’re in transit if something extremely urgent comes up.
Like power banks, mobile internet is not cheap, but it is more than worth it if you’re using it for work.
Have Backup Hardware
Again, having a working computer is the most important thing for those embracing the work from anywhere lifestyle. If your regular computer breaks somehow, it is essential you can keep working without missing a beat.
My solution is to keep a backup computer on hand at all times. I have a $200 notebook stored away for just this situation. I advise you to do something similar.
I’ve been living the work from anywhere in my life for many years, and I don’t regret a single one of them. I hope this primer will help you to break free from the office and join me.
IF MY WORD ISN’T ENOUGH MOTIVATION FOR YOU, CHECK OUT THIS BRILLIANT TED GUIDE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF EMBRACING WORK FROM ANYWHERE!
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