A month of remote working in Barcelona + kids

10 ways to thrive and be productive on a work-cation with young children in tow.

I co-run an employer brand agency called TheTruthWorks and my husband Matt is a freelancer Creative Director. With the long school holidays stretching ahead of us with zero plan for the kids and plenty of work goals, we decided fairly last minute to spend a month in Barcelona with our 5 year old son and our 2 year old daughter. We realised we were really not making the most of the flexibility we had been lucky enough to build for ourselves and that I regularly recommend to clients wanting to keep great talent at their companies.

Caveat - this is not an article about how to balance a margarita on one knee and a laptop on another under the shade of a palm tree. That's not real remote working, that's just for Instagram. Here's how to really make it work practically and smash your work while having an adventure and baking in family time.

Here our our 10 tips and real advice from what we learned.

1. Embrace August's weirdness

If you are an agency owner you will know that August is a weirdly quiet month often as many clients go on holiday leaving you and your team with more time on your hands than usual before a pile up of requests come September. August is therefore a surprisingly great time to experiment with your work set up and try something less conventional (which also happens to coincide with the school holidays.)

Flights are expensive at this time so you may as well plan a trip that lasts longer than a couple of weeks if you are going to take the hit on travelling costs anyway.

2. Make it cost-effective

There is no point paying for accommodation in the high season if you aren't on a 'real' holiday. Everyone scurries out of the cities in August to the coast so just imagine how many empty flats there are in need of good sensible families or responsible remote-workers as housesitters? Spain also has challenges with squatters claiming rights to residences they gain access to so people are often grateful to have their place occupied while they are away.

Ask your network and friends of friends or consider a houseswap. Our good friends were kind enough to lend us their lovely place in the Eixample district complete with kids toys and a home-office set up and we have offered the same in return in the future.

3. Manage your expectations

This is not a beach holiday, it's a work-cation with kids. So that means parenting and working out of your comfort zone. Embrace the adventure of it and set your expectations accordingly (also with your kids.) The goal is to have a more exciting and different experience than you would at home, not a relaxing break. This is helpful to remember when you are still navigating the metro or yelling at your kids to get ready so you can start your work day.?

4. Find the right set up

You need space for everyone to work and play. Do you have an office space where you are staying? What is the wifi like? Crucially is there air-con! Or is there a co-working space nearby you can work from (with air-con!). This is all critical to the success of your work-cation.

Doing concalls from an oppressively hot cupboard while kids role play Ninjago just outside the door is not going to make this pleasant for anyone.

Co-working spaces are also very empty in the summer so it's worth reaching out to membership managers to see if you can get a discounted one-month deal. I was lucky enough to be able to work occasionally from the stunning members club - The Cover .

5. Plan childcare

You need a support system if you are going to work remotely during the summer holiday. Agree a plan with your partner so everyone knows who is working/doing childcare when so you can plan your work time fairly. If you don't have much flexibility between you then just like at home you will need childcare.?

This isn't as hard to arrange away from home as you think - most international cities have international families living in them so there are apps, summer camps and babysitters that speak your language. This is where your network and friends' recommendations and planning ahead are essential or try Facebook groups or similar for expats in that city for advice.

Our kids did 3 days a week at La Marelle multilingual summer camp in Barcelona and spent their days outside in parks and museums having a blast and experiencing Spanish culture. It was less expensive than the Summer camps where we live in Amsterdam and it was new and exciting for them. We were worried about leaving them at first but they settled really quickly and loved being somewhere new.?

The other 2 days’ childcare were split between my husband and I as we both work 4 day weeks (a benefit we hugely value at TheTruthWorks ). We also asked the summer camp's teachers if they babysat and one of them did so we were able to enjoy the odd evening out without the kids to explore the city as a couple.?

6. Create a routine that works?

Forget your old routine if you are working in a new city for the summer, especially if it’s a HOT one with a laid back culture. We rewired our day to get up before the kids to do some work while the house was cool and quiet while they slumbered later than at home, dropped them at camp, grabbed ice coffees and went back to work until late lunch, picked them up and gave them TV time while we worked until around 8pm and then ate dinner out as a family most night Spanish style at 9pm before a 11pm bedtime for all of us. Crazy if you aren’t used to it but it meant we could actually enjoy blending into Spanish life vs trying to fight against it.?

Managing expectations with colleagues is key of course and having a flexible working culture helps. At TheTruthWorks we communicate well, and trust each other to get our work done on time and be available for calls when needed. My team was able to quickly understand my new routine and our working process adapted amazingly seamlessly. I also appreciated I would need to really be on the ball to get them what they needed and support them around a more complex set up.?

7. Activate your network?

Why not think of remote working as an opportunity to build your brand locally and give something back to the local community?

I posted to LinkedIn that I was going to be in Barcelona for a month and contacts from my past, from businesses I was interested in partnering with and even potential clients messaged me. I was able to put together a local networking event and talk at The Cover which was a great experience and easy to arrange. My husband even displayed some of his art at a local gallery night in the city. It’s almost impossible not to know someone who knows someone in a city now we are all so well socially connected online - so put yourself out there and give something back!?

8. Figure out what you need to feel relaxed

Maybe you are like me and cope with the day to day stresses of co-running a business by exercising or maybe you go for a massage or just sit in a nice cafe and drink a cup of tea extremely slowly while staring into space.

Whatever your coping mechanism at work, research how to achieve that space to relax in your new set up.?

I found a gym and a local cafe a block from the flat on day 1 and worked out every other day with some lovely (and hardcore) ladies at the very friendly Inside 45 gym in Eixample then grabbed iced coffee. Not only did this help my mental health and offset the tapas-damage, it also helped me quickly feel closer to the neighbourhood community by seeing and saying hi to the same faces day to day.?

9. Build in what gives you joy?

What’s the point of all this if you aren’t doing it to have fun! We treated the 3 day weekend (which starts on Friday at TheTruthWorks ) as real holiday time - from going out of town to a huge waterpark to hiking to local hangouts up in the hills behind Park Guell, we made sure to maximise being in a new location and spend as much time as a family as possible.?

10. Bake in a few days holiday at the end?

We wanted to come back feeling like we had had a break of sorts and we were already in a different country with great weather which made it easy! So we moved up the coast and took a few days off work at the very end, staying in a lovely hotel in Sitges (The Sabatic) which was a 40min cab or train from Barcelona. The best part about this was you don’t arrive having dealt with the packing/airport/passport control stress so you ease into holiday mode really fast which makes the most of a few days rest.?

In summary, would we do it again? We’re already planning next Summer…