Jul 28 2009

Workcations: My First Step in Finding Balance

Category: From My Life — Jeremy Wright @ 3:43 pm
This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Finding Balance

Finding Balance
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I’ve always said I could work from anywhere. I’ve decided to see if that’s really true by trying out a “workcation”, basically a vacation where I work… or a work schedule where I take a vacation… Or, in essence, go somewhere vacationesque and work no more than 3-4 hours a day.

Sure, part of this is an attempt at finding balance. But mostly it’s hoping that this “workcation” thing actually works. Cause if it does? I can do this more regularly. From the beach… from a mountaintop… from a canoe… It’s not about slacking, it’s about that awkward place between “I don’t have time to take a vacation” and “I don’t have the unction necessary to work”.

So, yeah, while I figure out what I’m looking for, what’s missing, what I want next? I’m gonna work from the beach, from the lawn chair, from the porch, from the bed. I might even work from the bathtub.

Here are my basic rules for workcationing:

  1. Go somewhere you aren’t surrounded by workish people (ie: this isn’t a staycation where you reduce your work hours)
  2. Go out and meet people, it’ll help stretch your horizons a  little bit
  3. Read
  4. Work no more than 4 hours a  day
  5. Don’t “check” your email/phone after 8pm

This is the beginnings of my question to find some sense of work/life balance. How do YOU find work/life balance?

Other Work/Life Balance Articles
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5 Responses to “Workcations: My First Step in Finding Balance”

  1. Brandon Eley says:
    July 28th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    I definitely think it’s possible, and I think regular “Workations” are good for your creativity and productivity. I’m in and out of the office a LOT, between family trips/vacations and work trips (which are getting more frequent). I’m forced to find a balance between work and play.

    Becoming a morning person has really helped. I find that getting up before the sun rises allows me to get a LOT of work done before most people are even awake. I get to experience some of the most amazing sunrises too… like watching the sun come up sitting on the north shore of Puerto Rico with my laptop and coffee.

    By noon, I can have 6 hours of PRODUCTIVE work done. I’m usually less productive in the afternoons anyway (especially after a big lunch)… so you can take off and play or whatever then.

    It’s worked well for me when traveling. The only kink is conferences… they’re pretty much a total wash for me. Between the actual conference and networking opportunities I don’t really ever have much time to work. I can get MAYBE 2 hours a day in at a conference.

    • Jeremy Wright says:
      July 29th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

      Hey Brandon, interesting idea on the getting up early thing… I’m so NOT a morning person, but I used to get up as early as 6:30am, and I get that whole “get half your day done by noon, relax during your body’s natural downtime, then wind back up in the afternoon” type of mentality…

      Part of my challenge woudl be figuring that out with social things that tend to go late 1-2 times/week, but I suppose that’s generally part of the work/life balance thing to begin with, eh?

  2. Bretton MacLean says:
    July 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    Is this “workcation” at all inspired by the 4-Hour Workweek? If by some strange chance you haven’t read it yet, be sure to add it near the top of your reading list. Based on what you wrote, I think Tim Ferriss’ concepts will resonate nicely with what you’re trying to do.

    The thing with work/life balance is that it’s partially a myth. You can never be “the best” at both, so you’ll need to decide for yourself which is more important. Most people *say* that life is more important to them, then spend most of their time & brain cycles on work. Now, if your “work” is something that you love so much that it feels like play, that’s great! However it seems like most people need to shift their priorities waaaaay over to the “life” side – scary, ambiguous, and unmeasurable as it may be