I love freelancing, travelling and working online, the benefits are endless- I can go where I want when I want, it supplies me with the money to travel whilst being able to have freedom to create my own schedule. I can take on as much or as little work as I want and I can be sat looking out on a tropical beach or a city skyline. Don’t get me wrong, I know how lucky I have it…but there are some hazards to being a location independent.
I’m writing this as I curse my laptop in yet another airport lounge, this time at Lisbon Airport. The supposed public wifi is being stubborn as hell. It knows I have a deadline and the portal is doing its utmost to block me from the worldwide web. Welcome to the joys of travelling and working online…
Airports
Lets talk airports. For those of you who have a short battery life on your computer (yes that’s me) sometimes the problem is not the internet connection but the location of a plug socket. You can have the best WiFi access in the world but if your laptop has no juice and the worst battery life in the world then it can be frustrating to try to find a plug socket. Even if you do find one you’re likely to find yourself crouched in a hallway on a floor somewhere being stepped over by passengers. Why oh why can’t airports have a nice comfy seat located conveniently next to a plug socket? I’m reminded of a time in Kuala Lumpur when I found a socket after an hour of searching in Starbucks. 5 minutes into my session and the lady says I have to move tables for cleaning….
I, as I write this, have conveniently found a socket at Gate 25 in Lisbon airport, but today it’s the wifi that’s being a bitch. I access the payment portal, only to find that it won’t take my address, apparently my UK postcode is invalid. Now it sends me nasty messages of “Network Timeout” and won’t even take me to the portal. In this day and age it would be nice if free wifi were supplied in every airport so that one doesn’t have to spend a fortune biding their time on an overnighter in the airport.
Let’s talk WiFi
WiFi or ‘weefee’ is a life saver. What did we do without it? But its surprising how many countries have poor internet connections and wifi hotspots.
Living in Bali, just as I would have an important Skype conference or email to send, the internet would cut-out or there would be a power cut and I would have to make a middle-of-the-night trip into town drinking coffee in the diner ungodly hours of the morning. Trying to get a house with internet in Bali was an absolute nightmare with set-up costs and much larger monthly fees than back in the UK.
Time-Zones
If you’re a freelancer you’re most likely to be working for someone in a different time-zone, which as a result means you can be up and random o’clock on your laptop for a Skype session.
Laptop and Equipment Deaths
Repeat after me. Back up. Back Up. Back Up. Everything you have that’s important to you on your computer, make sure you have a copy of it on a hard drive. It’ll save you the tears when your computer dies and you have to mourn the loss of your thousands of photos and documents. Another good way to do it is to email things to yourself so you have a copy of it in your email. Another obvious tip is to carry spares, spare batteries for your camera and spare memory cards are a must.
Carrying the stuff
Cords, cables, lenses, computers…my backpack is a maze of tangled-up leads entwined with each other. Carrying your equipment on the road can be a burden, especially when it comes to baggage restrictions and the occasional breakage.
Distractions
The most difficult thing about travelling and working is the distractions you face- people inviting you to go out partying or out for dinner, the desire to be out on the beach all day instead of stuck inside on a laptop. Time management and self restraint are essential. Whilst there are temptations everywhere to go and have fun you have to remember that your laptop is your office and that you have to allocate time to work.
Those of you who are location independents will know what I mean, but at the end of the day, these are small sacrifices when you think of the alternative.
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