Scott Oldford Site

Tag: writing while traveling

  • Want to Freelance Around the World? Take a Remote Year

    Want to Freelance Around the World? Take a Remote Year

    Why spend the next year writing at home when you could be out exploring the world? That’s the thinking behind a few programs that help get digital nomads out and about in the world — and connecting with like-minded peers.

    Check out these programs to learn how to work from the road alongside others or design your own DIY globe-hopping adventure.

    Remote Year

    Remote Year lets you travel the world with up to 75 like-minded peers for a year while working remotely. The current crew is made up of people from 15 different countries.

    Participants spend a month in each of 12 different cities around the world, while networking and building relationships with peers and locals.

    This program costs $2,000 per month, and you have to plunk down an initial $3,000 to reserve your spot. The fees cover travel between destinations, accommodations, an internet-equipped workspace and special activities and events.

    You’ll have to provide your own job, though. You can be self-employed or work for an employer that allows telecommuting, but it’s your responsibility to find work for the duration of the program.

    You’ll also need to commit to the full year, since they want people to fully participate in the program. But you’re not locked into a rigid schedule. You can head out on your own for a vacation or trip home at any time and rejoin the group upon your return.

    Stephanie Walden is one of Remote Year’s participants. She writes about her experiences on Mashable, including how she prepared for her year-long trip, from securing visas to storing her stuff while she was away.

    The next Remote Year cycle (which begins February 1, 2016) covers three continents, starting in South America (Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru) before heading to the European leg of the voyage (Turkey, Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia), and ending with a final four-month stint in Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam).

    Applications are open for the next cycle here.

    Coboat

    Water lovers who want a shorter co-working journey might consider joining a Coboat trip. This new program is set to debut in November, and its inaugural voyage will depart from Southeast Asia.

    Up to 20 digital nomads will stay on the 82-foot catamaran “Coboat” at a time. Its itinerary features stops all around Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Caribbean and other locations.

    People typically sign up for week-long stints, which start at 980 Euros or about $1100 USD, but you can combine destinations or even sign up for an ocean-crossing voyage for a more intensive and longer trip.

    With Coboat, your fees cover not only boat passage, but shared accommodations, food, internet and even watersports equipment for your downtime. To peruse available dates and itinerary options, check out Coboat’s website.

    DIY your own remote year

    While many people long to travel the world, some are wary signing up for a year-long program with a set itinerary. Others prefer to avoid boats. If neither of these programs is quite what you’re looking for, why not design your own DIY remote year?

    Plenty of people opt for a DIY version of Remote Year by working while traveling the world, staying in appealing places and moving along when they feel like it. This is a great option for people without a full year to spend traveling around the world, and those who want to focus on an itinerary of their own creation.

    Those who plan their own working trip can plan it out in advance or decide on stops one at a time.

    Options such as VRBO and Airbnb let you rent accommodations with full kitchens and all the comforts of home for a day, week or even longer along the way. Sites like Nomad List can help you scope out the best places to connect, both in terms of WiFi access and local freelance communities.

    You can find plenty of places to work while you travel, but be sure to have the tools you’ll need to succeed. Spend some time figuring out your hardware, software, connectivity and which gadgets you’ll need on your self-directed journey. Once you’re ready to embark, you’re sure to have the experience of a lifetime.

    Have you worked while traveling for a long period of time? Would you sign up for one of these programs?

  • Working on the Road: 4 Tips for Freelance Writing While Traveling

    Working on the Road: 4 Tips for Freelance Writing While Traveling

    As I write this, I’m at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport waiting for the next leg of my journey out to the East Coast. As a location-independent freelancer, I always try to take full advantage of travel interludes to catch up on my work.

    Working on the road can be a tricky endeavor. It’s amazing to be able to work from anywhere with a WiFi connection, but it’s important to plan ahead to be able to enjoy work and play while traveling. Trekking through Machu Picchu is a whole lot less exciting when deadlines are weighing you down.

    No matter how location-independent you are, working from the road definitely has its share of challenges.

    Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way to help balance work and travel.

    1. Plan before you go

    Before I leave home for a trip, I always pull a few lists together. I use old fashioned pen-and-paper, though many prefer digital to-do lists and programs such as Evernote (which still live in the cloud if you spill coffee all over your notebook).

    The first list I pull together is a list of deadlines that need to be completed while I’m away, urgent emails and phone calls I’ll have to find time to return, and other important items I can’t forget.

    I always try and get as many of these sorts of things taken care of as possible before I leave, but things have a way of coming up at the last minute.

    Whether it’s an urgent revision request for an article turned in months ago, or an email from the person you’ve been trying to track down for a month saying they have a small window of availability for an interview before they move to rural Botswana, sometimes things pop up on the road that you have to take care of.

    The second list I pull together is a list of offline tasks I can do. Generally, this involves “deep work” such as writing and non-web research, which is best done without online distractions such as pinging messages and emails — or the ever-present temptation of surfing the web. These tasks are great for airplanes. I don’t opt for expensive airline WiFi, though many freelancers swear by it.

    I find brainstorming also works very well while traveling. An infusion of newness and a disruption in one’s daily routine can allow for a lot of creativity. The change in scenery lends well to brainstorming, whether it’s mapping out an article, thinking of new articles to pitch, or adding a new twist to the novel you’re writing.

    2. Stick to a schedule

    When you are lucky enough to be able to work and play, you sure don’t want to blow it. That’s why it’s important to schedule your time and plan so you can make the most of both work and play.

    When I’m traveling, I like to do a little work first thing in the morning, and then check for any urgent emails I need to respond to in the late afternoon. Many times, I’ll be in locations with limited internet access, so I’ll check my emails whenever internet is available. It’s also important to take some time offline in order to disconnect and recharge.

    If I need to put a solid chunk of work in on a project, I’d  rather do that first thing in the morning so I have the rest of the day free to wander around and play without worrying about making a deadline. It also gives you the freedom to go explore the local nightlife without stressing about your assignment.

    But that’s just my personal preference. Some night owl writers prefer the opposite schedule. Experiment and find what works best for you.

    But be sure to stick to your scheduled times for work and play. You don’t want to fall down the rabbit hole of email and spend your trip responding to emails instead of seeing the sites of Belarus, Bangladesh or the Bahamas.

    3. Communicate with clients

    So, you’re leaving town. What do you tell your clients? Well, that depends on your work plan. Will you be scheduling a few hours for work every day and be available for routine, day-to-day inquiries? In that case, you may not need an away message at all.

    But if you’re going off the grid, be sure to set an away message on your email and voicemail so clients know why they’re not hearing back from you right away. Be sure to let them know when to expect a response. If you have a back-up contact for urgent matters, be sure to list that person’s information.

    If you’re planning on going off the grid for a significant amount of time, you should communicate this to clients well ahead of time so they can work with you to wrap up any loose ends before you head out.

    4. Back it up

    When you’re working from the road, it’s important to have dependable access to your files. I always have a few options available and I plan for different contingencies.

    Before I head out, I load important files that I’ll need onto my mini travel laptop. Then, I copy these files to a flash drive I also take with me. I figure if the laptop conks out, I can take the flash drive to a hotel business center or internet cafe with the files to get my work done if need be.

    As another layer of protection, I also have the files uploaded to my Dropbox account, so I can access them digitally if I need to. While none of these solutions is foolproof, having some redundancy in my data storage makes me feel much better when I work on the road.

    Do you spend a lot of time working while traveling? What tips and methods do you rely on?