Twenty-twenty was an extremely difficult year for business owners. Most of them had to learn how to run their enterprises and manage their teams online Such a dramatic switch from physical to the virtual world together with the global economic crisis had a great impact on their mental health.
Many businessmen suffer from so-called burnout these days.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress, with symptoms characterized by “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.
Are you one of them? Keep reading and learn how to get back in the swing.
What Is Workation
Workation is a combination of work and vacation. You break out from usual settings by going to some dream destination still keeping to work from there. You enjoy the elements of leisure, which help to relax, get rid of stress, and be more productive.
You stay at the place of your choice as long as you feel like but not less than two weeks to restore your mind-body balance and then come back refreshed and full of energy.
With the advent of new video conferencing, project management, collaboration, and messaging tools more and more business owners adopt the nomadic lifestyle or go on workations from time to time to kickback professional burnout and make the most out of the flexibility remote workstyle gives.
Who Can Go on Workation
Obviously, workation is not for everyone. People whose work requires physical presence (like doctors or police officers) can’t go on workation. But if most part of your job can be done digitally, you can hardily pack your bag. Just make sure to take your laptop with you.
Workation is an option for:
- Business owners,
- Managers,
- IT professionals.
Advantages of Workation
Every venture has its upsides and downs. So does the workation. Let’s see why people go on workoliday and what disappointments to avoid.
- Change of environment as a way to get inspiration and motivation back.
- The opportunity to reassess business values and take a look at it from another angle.
- Get rid of stress and burnout without going on a holiday.
- Escape an allergy season, too cold/hot months, and spend this unfavorable time in perfect weather conditions.
- Meet people running similar businesses and learn from their experience.
- Learn new cultures.
- Dedicate time to personal and professional growth.
- Increase productivity.
- Build relationships with the team if you go on workation together.
This is not the full list of woliday advantages but you got the essence. As to drawbacks, I can think of only a few:
- Lack of concentration during the first days. This won’t happen to you if you choose the right place for workation. I am going to talk about such locations later on.
- Additional expenses for plane tickets and visas. You can easily compensate for these by choosing a country with affordable living costs.
- Lack of time for fun and sightseeing. You are not going on vacation, so you will have to devote most of your time to work. However, you can do what you like after work and on weekends. What’s more, you can extend your workation to six weeks or more, for instance. I believe this is perfect timing to embrace everything.
How to Prepare for a Workation
There are two ways to approach this. You can turn to professionals like Remote Year or plan everything by yourself. If you choose the second option, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Consider top destinations for digital nomads and people on workation (not regular hotels). They are beneficial because you will get access to coworking and coliving facilities along with a friendly community of like-minded people. This is exactly what you need to focus on business objectives while still having plenty of opportunities for adventures at free time.
- When on workation you need to make more money than you spend. As you are not on holiday and pursue more down-to-earth goals, you need to plan your budget and work activities properly. It’s not that complex and when you’ll see that your business is even more profitable when you are enjoying your paradise workation, you’ll make such trips a part of your life and forget about fatigue and depression.
- Travel light. Ideally, your luggage should fit in a small suitcase or a backpack. Believe me, the comfort of traveling light is worth your packing efforts. Besides, you will considerably save on flights catching cheap ones if you don’t have a giant bag with you.
- Stay in one place long enough to accomplish a particular goal. Two-six weeks are considered ideal for a workstation. The temptation to see the entire country is strong but if you set off for a new destination every three-five days, you are going to feel drained very soon. Besides, you will fail to complete your tasks by the time you leave, which makes the whole thing senseless.
- Be friendly to people. This is a part of workation therapy. Remember that networking and socializing are part of your program. Don’t push people away and you will always have company for all your leisure activities.
Best Places for a Workation
Now, when you know so much about workation, let me sketch you some top destinations to go to.
Ponta Do Sol (Madeira)
Ponta De Sol is situated on the south coast of Madeira island. It is a Nomad Village offering free working space, events, access to the community, and amazing natural beauty. The village is a place to mingle, work, and network with digital nomads & the local community.
The workspace is located in the village center, which is a few steps from local restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, and the beautiful ocean bay where you can witness the stunning sunset.
Koh Lanta (Thailand)
Lanta is a small tropical island in the south of Thailand. It has no large chain restaurants or shopping malls but you will find everything you need there. Lanta is chilled out, safe and comfortable to stay.
KoHub is a local fun and productive oasis for people on workation looking for an island break from the city. It offers nice coworking and coliving facilities, lightning-fast internet, tasty food, coffee, and juices.
Bali (Indonesia)
Bali is a magic place that doesn’t require any presentation. If you have never been there before or dreaming to see it again, choose it for your next workation.
Hubud coworking space and community will take care of making your visit memorable. Here you will join a dynamic bunch of business rebels, courageous creatives, techies and truth-seekers and learn to live a fulfilling life on your own terms.
Over to You
That’s it for now, hope you liked the story. If yes, give it a share. Maybe your friends are also suffering from the burnout and will consider a workation as one of the ways to bounce back from it.
The article was written by Helga Moreno, a marketing manager at andcards, coworking space software company, a workation and remote workstyle fan.
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Warm countries, of course, are a paradise. But try to visit Nordic countries, there are cold but they are very beautiful in winter.
Interesting information! The tips to prepare for a workation seems to be very helpful and what most other articles/blogs out there don’t mention.