02 September, 2016

Nomad office and working holidays

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I have been experimenting with different work models over the last six years of being self-employed. I started working at home, which proved a bit difficult since the children were still living with us.



Then I tried a marvelous co-working space in the middle of the city and not far from where we lived. This worked very well for a few years. It is a good community of people and the work environment inspired me. Over time though, for whatever reason, my interest to participate waned.

I am not sure it had anything to do with the community, but rather to do with the changing circumstances of the work I was doing and the children leaving home to go off to university. I was doing a lot of in-house training and coaching and felt that I was having to interact with enough people on a day-to-day basis. When I was not doing training, I was creating e-learning and blended-learning material for companies. This required a lot of peace and quiet and that is not always available in the co-working office.

For the last two years I have, what I call, a nomad office. All the materials I need to work are in a small roller suitcase. I go off in the morning into town and spend the day going from one place to another and working. I have a long list of cafés, public sitting areas, libraries, and park benches (if the weather is good) where I while away my time.

I love working this way. It is easy to work with concentration for about an hour or two and then I leave, go for a walk and then change locations and continue working on a task. If the task needs extreme focus or concentration, I do it at home in my living room.



Alternatively, I have been taking working holidays. Visiting friends and asking them whether I can work at their places during the day when they are at work. The photo above was my office space this week. Amazing, isn't it!

So far this year, I have taken working holidays in Amsterdam, Montreal, and now, Wischhafen (a small village on the North Sea). If all goes well, I will also be in Heidelberg later in the year.  

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