Sipping espresso at a familiar cafe on Avenue de la République, Paris. It's 8am, still early before my class starts at ESCP Paris Campus. But it's 1pm in Vietnam, my team is getting ready for the WIP meeting (work in process) every day. I follow your situation.copywriteris following up on a project for a Technology client. ProductflagshipTheir (key product) is about to be launched, while other TV and refrigeration products are still in the maintenance phase. A lot of content needs to be prepared.
The team updates the status of posts on Trello, a task management app. If any task is slow,deadline(deadline), the system will display red, and if it is on deadline, it will be green. The whole team spends 30 minutes to think of ideas for the new product, and at the same time discusses with the Art Director to create the image to be released on the launch day. Because it is a productflagshipSo the images must follow strict, separate principles.tagline(a technical term in the marketing field to position the product and philosophy of the company), we had to write about 5 different sentences for customers to choose from.
The meeting ended, and the day’s work was relatively smooth. I just had to write a new tagline for the campaign and check the quality of my subordinates’ articles before sending them to the client. Using the task management software really helped me see all the assignments that needed to be done for the day. Each assignment haddeadlineSpecifically, I just look at which assignments are red or yellow (meaning they are overdue) and do them first. If they are all done, I will move on to writing the friendly green topics.
Writing down a few ideas took me 45 minutes. Still had plenty of time to leisurely walk to school, which started at 10am - Paris time. I worked for almost two hours straight, finishing my work in Vietnam, at a cafe 14 hours away by plane. Sometimes during the lecture, there were urgent Viber calls because the client needed to change the paragraph.captionabout to post on Facebook, orhashtagInstagram is wrong. Overall, it was a typical busy morning for me. But I was happy to breathe the mild air of Paris in May, sip a cup of not-so-good coffee with a romantic view, and finish my work in Vietnam with a steady income from a salary.
That's an example of the days I followed the lifestyle.workation: travel and work at the same time. An idea that is not too new to friends from other countries, but relatively strange to us. In short, you travel and work to earn income without missing out on the moment of exploring the world.
What does Workcation mean?
Combining the words work + vacation, workation is a concept that refers to the way of working remotely combined with travel and relaxation. This trend originated in the US and European countries and immediately received a strong response from a large number of office workers. Up to now, enjoying vacations combined with working remotely has spread to Asian countries, including Vietnam.
My "headquarters" is in Saigon - where I have a house, family, friends, and work. My passion for traveling started in 2014 and has been maintained until now. I own my own social media channels writing about travel, you can call me a travel blogger, but I don't earn enough money with the spending from traveling. Full-time traveling is not something I aim for, because basically, anything too much will quickly get boring. Part-time traveling is what I choose. When I have money, inspiration, and a gap in my work, I go. Every year (before the pandemic), I go on about 10 trips abroad, from 3 days to Singapore, Thailand, to a week or even a month in Europe, Africa, and East Asia. Having only 15 days off makes my vacations not fully enjoyed. Therefore, choosing to travel and work at the same time is the most optimal thing for me. Workation helps me complete my work, have a stable income, and travel everywhere.
Most of us will seefreelancernew to workation. But I am the opposite case: I have a full-time job and travel frequently. From my own "smooth" experiences, below are 5 things to keep in mind so you can start workation effectively.
1.Work does not manage you by the time you show up at the office, it is managed by the efficiency of your work.Creative work in oneagencyAdvertising allows me to escape the physical space of the office. I don’t have to sit at my desk to write a good tagline, or go into a conference room to discuss ideas with colleagues. The end result of my work is the result. A good idea, a catchy tagline, a quality proposal.
2.Workation must have the consent of colleagues and superiors.No one wants to face jealousy when a group member suddenly "gets" to work and "enjoy" at the same time. To be able to work in "peace", an environment that is not jealous or judgmental of your life choices is necessary.
My working environment is aagencyinternational with superiors who are Polish, Filipino, colleagues are also young, dynamic and open. They are not too unfamiliar with workation. There are times when my subordinates want to travel to Da Lat but their leave is over, I still agree to let them go, as long as the work is guaranteed to go smoothly.
Everyone is happy and adopting the workation lifestyle to enjoy life and pursue their career. Being in the creative industry myself, my direct boss also understands that I need a lot of inspiration to produce good results, that traveling also helps with work.
3.Wherever there is internet, there is an office.Take your vacation days toofflinePerfect for adventurous trips. For example, during my Himalayan trekking trip, I had no internet at all, so choosing a workation was not suitable at that time. Trekking for 8-10 hours a day also makes it the least ideal workation environment. So, if I were traveling in Japan with internet and 4G everywhere, and being able to work on the comfortable Shinkansen train, I would choose a workation.
4. Have thigh sense of responsibility for work; always ready to handle work anywhere.One tip for effective workation is to have a schedule and schedule meetings with colleagues. Each country has a different time zone, so there will definitely be a time difference, so I always proactively give the team a suitable time to meet together, as well as to show everyone that I interact with my work. Wherever you go, make sure you are not late.deadline. Only then will you have the following workation trips.
5.Work hard and play hard.For 2 hours in the morning, I focused on getting work done on Trello. The rest of the time, I spent enjoying the trip.
In fact, we all know that there is a lot of "dead" time during office hours. So why don't we put all our efforts into work, to turn that "dead" time into "golden" time to explore a strange city, enjoy a different interesting life for ourselves?
Workation is not a trend, it is not because of the pandemic that people realize that we can do many things in our "dead" time at the office. Workation has existed for a long time and has formed an effective lifestyle, at least for the writer and the colleagues around. So, if the nature of the job allows, try to choose such a balanced life, so that we can truly live and not "die" in the four corners of the office.
