Reflecting: My 1st Week Working Remotely From A Different Country

It’s a Friday. As I type, it’s coming up to 4.30pm. I’m sat on a long balcony at the back of our Airbnb. The sun hits this spot just after 2pm… From there, it starts to sink, slowly and softly, eventually vanishing into the horizon.

Reflecting on the week, it dawned on me just how accustomed to this lifestyle I’ve become. And just like that, I’m not reflecting on just?this?last?week, I’m reflecting on the past 4 years. My mind took me back to where it all began — what turned out to be a fateful week — in Madrid, 2018.

I learned?so?much about working remotely from abroad that week. Here’s how it went, and some of the lessons I’ve learned.

There’s 2 sides to the work and travel lifestyle, often referred to as digital nomadism — or (slomadism, in my case). I’ll talk through both…

Arriving and Day 1

We (my girlfriend and I) were staying just outside the main, tourist hubbub of the city. I remember arriving, getting my bearings on google maps, and thinking ‘hmm, maybe we should have booked a bit closer to… well…?everything’.

Anyway, we unpacked and got settled. This was our first?working trip. Excitement and anxiety filled the air. Tapas and sangria is (literally) minutes away, but a glance at the calendar reigned in any thoughts about a rogue stroll to Centro Madrid, to take it the grand, tree-lined avenues and nibble through endless tapas.

I remember that first night so vividly. I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about work the next day. How’s all this going to feel… Will it work?

Work

Work was still work. Nothing about my job changed because I was connecting to the internet from a different country.

But, suddenly, I was very?aware?of the fact I was in a different country.

Even though the small team I worked with knew, and accepted, I was ‘away’, I caught myself anticipating criticism, and started thinking about how I could out-work it.

I do not recommend this.

It can easily become a downward spiral… What’s at the end??Oh, just burn out and despair.

Get out of your head

It’s easier said than done, but here's a top tip: Focus on your output, and not the time spent.

Over the years, I’ve worked on projects, completed tasks, written reports, researched, presented, etc. Something I do for nearly all ‘work’ tasks? Estimate how long it’s going to take (even if you don’t write it down, you have a little think about it).

I’ve become really good at estimating how long a piece of work will take, but there are still times when I under or over cook it. If I get something done in half the time, that’s a win! I can choose to put the time gained into my next piece of work, take a longer lunch, get some air, or finish a little earlier?(to give the tapas and sangria of this world the attention they deserve!).?But, if I underestimate, I’m willing to cancel dinner plans, and make sure deliver for my team and our clients.

This really hits with two things important to me: Taking pride in your work, and keeping your word. You might not overlap with these values, but when you don’t deliver, whether you are ‘away’ or not, your team is going to notice, and that’s another downward spiral. Don’t worry though, when you DO deliver they’ll recognise your wins, too.

If your work is heavily reliant on collaboration, you’ll need to work on some general rules, or working protocols to ensure you can still get stuff done. However, if your work requires deep focus, being ‘away’ can actually work in your favour — there’s fewer distractions.

After a few more short trips like this, people actually noticed a positive change in my output at work.

A note on small talk

You know the small talk people make at the start of a work call? People are still joining, there’s always someone a couple of minutes late —?sorry, I was on another call. It creates a window for some human interaction before the BIZNIZ begins. Someone asks…?So, where are you based?

Well, that week, in Madrid, this question was catapulted from the category of small-talk, into the realms of high-pressure game-show jackpot hot seats.

My internal team knew I was away. Suppliers? Tell them whatever you like! But clients…?yeowtch. I had to be careful. The question, likely prompted by a clearly non-office background, left me with a choice. Option a) tell them I’m ‘WFH’, or b) tell them I’m in Madrid.

How will they react? Will they think we’re a less credible supplier? Will they think I’m just lazing away in the midday Madrid sun, sipping sangria and moving my mouse on occasion to create the illusion I’m online and ‘werking’? Will they leave us??My mind went on…

Here’s what you do: decide based on the client. You know your clients, decide IN ADVANCE, and based on your relationship, what you’re comfortable sharing with them.

I’ll never forget one client’s reaction of shock and surprise when I could make a call with him at a reasonable hour. He was visiting their office in the Philippines, and I was working from Thailand (where the time difference was just an hour). With most of his work based in the UK, he was straddling time zones. We talked over a morning coffee while the UK was still asleep. They’ve been loyal customers ever since. Maybe they would have been anyway, but the working relationship I have with our contact there is on another level after sharing that experience.

Thankfully, in the post-pandemic world, WFH is much more widely accepted, so people are much less inquisitive when you have a residential background on a video call. How are they to know what country you’re in?

Life

Cliche Alert(ew!): Variety really is the spice of life.

Somehow, running 5k around a new city was more enjoyable than my ‘regular’ 5k route. I actually ran so much that week I injured my ankle — Ooops. Heading to?Hola Coffee?on a morning walk was a chance to practice speaking Spanish. And I ate delicious watermelon every single day of the week — not something I do in the UK.

The initial desire to be closer to the intimate hustle and bustle of?Centro Madrid?seemed pointless after just a couple of days. Our day times were spent working, and all the ‘action’ of the city was still close enough to make an evening meal easy. If anything, being at an arm’s length made it feel like more of an event.

That feeling's grown over the years, as I’ve drifted from spending a week in a place, to 2–3 months. When you’re working through the week, there’s no point being in the tourist centre of anywhere, you can use the 8–12 weekends and seemingly endless evenings you have to?really?explore. Which brings me to this…

You can always come back

That week, in Madrid, I wanted to do, and see it all. Strong winds were sweeping the region at the time, and one of Madrid’s beautiful parks was closed — it housed some of the city’s oldest trees, these things were enormous but the winds were so strong they were bringing them down, and the city deemed the park too dangerous to enter.

I remember being a little disappointed.

What I didn’t know at that point was how my lifestyle would evolve over time. I wanted to get everything ‘ticked off’ because I didn’t know if this way of working would be sustainable for me. Turns out it is, and now I always remember not to treat a city like a checklist. When you can work remotely, you can always come back.

That's the real beauty of the remote work and travel lifestyle.

The biggest lesson I learned from my time in Madrid? If it’s possible here, it’s possible anywhere. Love Skiing? Head to the alps and work from there for a ski season. Want to experience island life? Take your pick, from the Caribbean to the Canaries. Maybe you want to explore a whole continent or learn a language? Spend 6 months free-falling through South America.?Go to the place with the people, the experiences, or the weather YOU want.

That week in Madrid. What a week.

If you’re trying to decide if working remotely from another country could work for you, I hope these reflections on ‘that week in Madrid’ are insightful. Did a specific question come up for you? Comment below!

Where has 'that week' taken me?

Since 2018, I’ve connected dots across 4 continents. The front cover of my passport has lost its shine.

I wouldn't trade this experience for the world - and what a wonderful world it is...

That’s why I keep going — and encourage everyone to give it a go. If it works for you, those?working trips?might just become your new life. If not, I’m sure you’ll learn a thing or two you can take forward in life.

For now though, reflection time is over, and I snap back to the balcony as the sun sinks lower, and the sky turns orange overhead.

Where am I??

Good question.

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