How to spend a month working overseas

I prefer going into the office over working from home.

However, to give flexible working a proper go, I spent the past month working remotely.

Very remotely.

I spent four weeks based in Korea.

This experiment coincided with our daughter’s second birthday, and thanks to COVID it was the first time my in-laws have met her.

Here are some of my reflections on working (very) remotely:

• Fulfilling my commitments to existing clients was relatively seamless. There was only a one-hour time difference which meant it was practically not difficult, despite a couple of distracting moments and one Wi-Fi failure.
• On the other hand, prospecting by phone was more of a challenge. Even though I had international roaming on my mobile, when I called people in Australia, my number came up as a weird scrambled international number (a couple of people told me they avoided my call because of that). It was also difficult for some people to get through to me.
• Batch recording a month’s worth of podcast episodes before the trip meant that I didn’t have to worry about creating content while I was away.
• I got to meet a couple of members in Korea in person, which was great. Working remotely in locations where there are existing clients (and/or new business opportunities) makes sense.
• My virtual assistant continued to work as usual, which created some continuity in the business even though I was abroad.
• Being out of the office made me feel far more relaxed, which possibly contributed to the lack of intensity around business development activity. I was so relaxed I found myself dozing off when my daughter took her afternoon naps.

Overall, the remote working experiment went well.

When I established CRE Success, I wanted this business to give me the freedom to work where and when I want to.

COVID got in the way of those plans, however, the past month has proven it’s possible (notwithstanding some learnings that will make it better next time), and I’m happy about that.