How you can Workation (without losing your productivity)

This November, I hit the road, I also hit rockbottom productivity levels and then slowly managed to surface. And now, I am working on a float.

I was split between wanting to soak in the sea and attending the sales meeting. Soon I had backlogs, 1700 un-replied emails. Calls for launches, panel discussions, advice, hiring, shoots and a whole big Christmas month in front of me.

A workcation allows you to travel longer than you ever could. It does wonders to your creativity by changing up your monotonous schedule. It has been a gold mine of ideas for me. Since we are not going to work this gives you the opportunity to meet likeminded people on their own workations, I have met some really interesting people in the last month.

Here is how you can do it, and of-course safely.

1. Rough plan the workation — We planned to drive from Bombay to Goa, with everything that we could fit in our car. Everything from a cutting board and knives to bedsheets. (I have put down a packing list for you in the end.) We were going to stay in hotels for the first 12–13 days and then find a house for a short term rental. And that was our rough plan. Tip — Flats for monthly rental are not available online but once in Goa/another city you are able to see so many rental signs that have phone numbers on them. // Because we drove, we have not had to use a cab or be in any kind of public transport or place.
2. Initial 10–12 days should be just holidays — I took the first week off because of the travel time plus our first hotel Cape Goa was too beautiful to work from. Its unfair to your work if you don’t take leave while resettling because you will honestly not be able to work. It’s also unfair to where you are. Take the few initial days/weeks off if you can.
3. Tailor the new Working Hours — Once you start working, tailor your work day to fit in some time actually living the city you are in. In Goa for some reason we were sleeping at 11 and waking at 7. So I could start work earlier get a lot of work done till 4 pm, go see the sunset and start work again at 7 pm. I am also thinking of 8am –3 pm , 7pm — 9 pm.
4. Workspace and room in proximity — Your work station at a cafe and stay should be close by, so you can move around should you want to take a long loud call you can quickly move to your quite room close by.
5. Hotel Vs Apartment — I was looking for an apartment from day 10 because it would help me cook home food, have my quite place to work with good internet. I found the hotel rooms too small for both of us to work on calls. I once had to do a webinar from an out door bathroom, was hiding the shower through out.
6. Internet, 4 G, Jio — Where ever you are booking your long stay or renting the apartment, go check the 4G, because internet will not work when you need it. In our current apartment we have 3 wifis but only 4G works, yet works well all day.
7. Transit on weekends — If you think you want to move around and be on the road its best to use the weekends to transit because a car working day will be a nightmare.
8. Company Wide Morning Meetings on Monday & Friday — We have an organisation wide morning meeting, its sometimes only 15 mins long but it helps us stay aligned, stay motivated, stay focused, start our day, wherever we are.
9. Measure your own weekly success — It’s important to ensure that you are almost as productive as you are in your own home where everything is designed to help you work. While you are out, you need to measure if you are running too slow at the end of every week. I measure simple things such as sales, pending emails, tasks, pending approvals.
10. Acknowledge the Top 3 successes for the day — I am currently living with my best friend and husband, the 3 of us have this ritual at the end of a day where we acknowledge the top 3 things for each one of us that day. Even if its 1. Amazing sales meeting 2. Surreal Cycling Trip 3. A big contract bagged. It means we are living life in a way that it’s not only work thats meaningful to us, but life in its entirety.
11. Delegate — We all feel we are more important that we really are in the operations of our companies, this time can really help you step away and see if the team can run the show. I’ve watched my team take on a lot more responsibility because of just knowing that I am away somewhere. And they have held the fort strong. It has given me the confidence that the show will go on even if I am not there :)
12. Adopt Technology — I hate and love to say this but I installed 5–6 apps on the Okhai website this month, all for things that I used to do daily, “I have been replaced with an app” I guess it was never ok to do them all manually, why did I wait till I could actually not do them.
13. Convey to Team and Partners that you are on a workation — Everyone will understand that you have left home after a year and that you have worked like crazy the whole year. Its ok if you are not going to be on the top of your game for a bit, you are recharging, while staying plugged in.
14. Continue to do some of the things that you used to do at home to maintain continuity — I am working out with the same workout trainer remotely, I am eating home food a lot, thank fully our new cook has similar cooking style as the one at home. I am continuing my blog. Life is a good new mix of regular and new.
15. Places to stay — Hotels and home stays I stayed at : Cape Goa, Vivenda, Palm Grove & Figueiredo House. I now live in a 2 BHK apartment in Manderem (for 20K a month :))Its a fresh building in the middle of a rice field. The whole building is people working remotely, yoga instructors or just seekers. You will surely find yours.

Packing list (I’ll keep updating it with time)

1. Extension Cords + Multi pin adapters — for your Laptops.
2. Pens, Pencils
3. Diaries
4. Hair Dryer — for your hair, if you get hurt, for your wound, or for clothes that wont dry.
5. Scissors
6. Plucker
7. Slippers — 2
8. Foot scrub, pumice stone, since you will be out in the mud a lot.
9. Steel Water Bottles to refill on the go
10. Toilet Paper
11. Bedsheets — 2
12. Toilet pater rolls — 4
13. Nail clipper
14. Mosquito Repellent — V imp for rural India/Goa
15. Big Baskets for the car — 1 for food and 1 for all the toiletry bottles
16. Internet dongle/jio pod — basically something extra
17. Toiletry bags — water proof
18. Basic Groceries and snacks— food for the car and the times you want feel like home.
19. Yoga Mats and workout clothes + shoes
20. Knives and cutting board if you cook and eat cut fruits etc
21. Laundry bags — big saviours /organisers, we are carrying an industrial size. We just load it up in the car.
22. Mugs & coffee, Moka pot, french press, pour overs
23. Hair — Hair oil, shampoo, conditioner, lots of hair clips and bands.
24. Face — Sunscreen, Aloe vera Gel, more sunscreen, other things you use daily.
25. Body — I bought cold pressed oils on the go.
26. Clothes — Dinner, Beach, Workout, Jog, Cycling, Shopping, Lounge at home, Cafe, Traveling.
27. A sling bag, a beach bag and lots of fabric bags for everything else.
28. Please get a fast tag on the car so you wont have to pay toll and hence exchange money 15–16 times on the trip, it was the only exposure on the route.
29. Dry fruits.
30. Debit card and savings to buy everything else you may need.

The view from our balcony :) All the best finding yours.