Most Common Challenges for Remote Workers - Be Prepared

 

 

You might find that while you have managed to move to a new place finally and you have your mid-term rental for a few months living, you still don’t seem to have any time to visit this new country. This might be because you have a poor work-life balance. This is very common, especially for remote workers who are just getting used to the lifestyle, and it has become even more of a problem as the current pandemic has closed down a lot of services.

 

Make sure you have ways to separate your work life from your relaxation time. If you work from home, manage your space to don’t work and relax in the same place. If you can, try working from a café or a coworking space once in a while. Every small step you take towards having more relaxation time will bring more efficiency to your work.

 

 

Being a remote worker can be great, but there is a fair amount of loneliness, especially if you are not part of more extensive projects or small teams. But even beyond work, you want to make sure that your social life is as busy as your work life. Go for expat meetups, find a hobby group that meets up in real life, or fire up a dating site and meet some fun people.

 

Loneliness is not just bad for your emotional state, but it can also make your work less efficient. Meeting people from your field can tip you off to new developments as well as new career paths. So make sure to be connected to people in the remote working and digital nomads communities where people like you look for the best ways to work.

 

 

One of the biggest hurdles to a happy and healthy life as a remote worker is exercising. This is also true of a typical 9 to 5 job, but with everything we already mentioned above, it should be clear that isolation and a poor work-life balance can be especially conducive to bad health.

 

And if you feel like you don’t have time for exercising, join it together with meeting new people. There are yoga classes, cycling enthusiasts, and gym groups in most larger cities, so you can get moving and meet new people at the same time.

 

 

All the problems mentioned above need time and energy to be tackled, and a disorganised schedule will make a mess of any week where you’ll feel like you are barely doing the essentials. Time management is complex at first, but you will find it rewarding once you get into the rhythm. Make sure to have a regular sleeping schedule, that you allocate enough hours to your work and relaxation and that you factor in things like dips in motivation, breaks, and exercising.

 

But you should always also plan beyond just the week. Knowing how much work you need to do in a month or even a year can help you parse it out into smaller chunks that you can accomplish daily, giving you a feeling of progression (which helps with motivation) and ensuring that you hit important deadlines. Just make sure you plan with a few extra days for holidays and sick days, so you don’t suddenly find yourself not meeting deadlines because of stress or the flu.