Want To Know What Can Be Done While Traveling The World?

Want To Know What Can Be Done While Traveling The World?

2018, Oct 10    

I left to travel the world with We Roam on January 6, 2017. When I boarded my flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina I knew what countries I would be visiting during the year. I also knew my goals and business objectives.

That’s it and trust me that was enough. I give myself no more than three business goals in a year. Why three? It allows for you to stay on task even with the inevitable setbacks, you can buffer in much needed time off in between projects. Should you need to pivot you have time to think and make conscious decisions. In short, it’s good for you mentally, personally, physically, and professionally. It’s pointless to run the race and collapse at the finish line.

My business goals were layered and built upon one another which makes it impossible to skip around and do my best work. If you create goals that don’t stack, it can be more challenging as you can be pulled in many directions. You can, however, dedicate more time to one than the other in advance. I would recommend staggering your deadlines for the appropriate time, season, bandwidth, and audience response.

Halfway through the year I wrote an article, Want To Challenge How Much Work Can Be Done Remotely? which let people know of my progress. I had finished the first two goals and was on my way to the final goal of the year.

Three big goals in a single year was challenging. So much so that it made moving to a different country each month easy and something I looked forward to. The challenges I would face in other countries were often the distractions I needed to get out of my own way.

Here’s the updated list of what I accomplished in 2017: 2 - The number of launches I created. The Admin to VA Summit launched in April and the Essential Business Model For VAs online course launched in May. While my new book was finished the launch date wasn’t until January 28, 2018. 8 - The number of virtual assistants I had working for me in 2017. I now have three virtual assistants who work with me regularly. 8 - The number of online classes I taught in four different countries. 16 - The number of countries I traveled to in 2017. 21 - The number of dedicated vacation days I took. Vacation days are extremely important to a person’s productivity. I say dedicated because there were days I took off but consider personal, not vacation. 25 - The number of books I read. I read considerably less in the second half of the year since I was writing. I didn’t want to take on another person’s point of view, opinion, tone, or verbiage. I couldn’t possibly add up the number of magazines, articles, and blog posts I read. 29 - The number of flights I took. 39 - The number of networking events I attended both virtually and in person. 65 - The number of articles I wrote for my blog and LinkedIn. A sharp decline during the second half of the year. I was dedicating my writing time to my book instead. 88 - The number of consultations given. (Also, a decline from the first half since I wasn’t taking on new clients towards the end of the year). 130 - The number of professional development hours I logged. These were in the form of mastermind classes, coaching calls, and online courses. 137 - The number of volunteer hours I spent helping others in any way I can. While the majority was online I did my best to volunteer in each country we visited. 264 - The number of interviews I’ve conducted for my clients. 3700 - The number of followers I gained during the year for my daily personal blog. (I started with zero). 450,000+ - The number of words I wrote for my personal blog. The number I really wrote I’ll never know. Editing takes away a lot and that’s a good thing. This is important because as a writer the only way to get better is to write daily.

I wrote this article for those who still challenge the productivity levels of remote workers (whether or not they are traveling). It’s not a subject I write about often because it seems boring and sometimes comical.

Boring because working remotely is part of the daily minutia of my life. I can do it from anywhere. This is easy. Comical because I didn’t always know how to respond when people ask how I can work while traveling the world. There was not much difference in the way I worked from home and remotely in the States.

One of the biggest topics when talking about remote working is productivity. Who is more or less productive? Who collaborates more? How can someone work without someone else looking over his or her shoulder? For myself and those whom it does work for, we don’t need anyone looking over shoulder. We are disciplined. We know how to set goals and meet them. We are dedicated to not only our craft but also our personal and professional development.

Here’s the clincher, these things directly related to having the best year of my business to date and are in complete alignment with the three goals I had set. I could’ve have spent my time doing a lot of things, but if they didn’t contribute to goals I set in some way shape or form it wouldn’t have been productive.

This brings up another a point. What does productivity look like? It’s different for everyone. To lump productivity into a cookie cutter shape would be absurd. All the things I listed are productive for me. Which means the hours I spent writing and reading even though they aren’t directly related to business are.

The point is productivity is not an accident and yes, you can be productive working remotely and from anywhere in the world. A person is productive on purpose and through planning. For me, it’s often a numbers game. For others, it’s not. Productivity shows itself in the achievement of goals, finished products, completed projects, and collaborative wins.

Twitter Facebook Google+
# remote working # business