The Work-Travel balance

Thank you, Ranga for this ever relevant piece ! (First appeared in 2014)

The desire to travel and “see the world” is inherent in most of us. We look enviously at pictures from National Geographic and wonder when we will be able to travel to all these exotic places.

Most of us do manage to do quite a bit of travel in our lives. Some of us use our savings judiciously to travel on a regular basis, some of us find jobs that allow us to travel, while many more of us work the extra yards in the hope that we can do all the travel that we want once we retire.

Any which way you look at it, there are challenges and compromises to be made. How much we manage to travel depends on how well we manage certain aspects of our lives.

1. Managing expenses

One of the first issues that come up while discussing travelling is the dreaded question of the expenses.

To understand how much money we really need is a huge task. A lot of us can barely explain how much we exactly spend out of our incomes. Some of our expenditure is fixed — rent, EMI, School fees etc while some of it is quite variable — dining out, clothing etc.

One of the key aspects of planning a travel-friendly life would be to identify exactly how much money you need in order to keep going. While the fixed expenses are pretty easy to quantify, it is important to look at the variable expenses more critically? How much do you need to spend on food and drink in a month? How much of this can be cut down without significantly impacting your life-style? Surely, you don’t want to end up being a skinflint who constantly looks at every penny that is being spent, but at the same time, you also don’t want to be spending too much of your money on things that don’t really matter.

2. Generating income

The other big question that crops us when it comes to travel is generating the income required to sustain ourselves. A lot of us have steady income jobs and have trained ourselves to think that way.

However, in the new economy, multiple avenues have opened up for flexible working. Geographically independent jobs are now more common than before, thanks to improved technology and connectivity. As more and more companies start looking at work-from-home options, it is not too far-fetched to think that jobs can now be managed from any location. Not just back-end, manual heavy work, even high profile roles like project management and product development are now being managed on a remote basis.

With a bit of effort, it is possible to reinvent existing job roles to make them geography-independent. And more travel-friendly !

3. Working for travel

Another development in recent times has been the availability of travel-friendly jobs. English teaching across non-English speaking countries is now a fairly lucrative job option for travel-inclined people. Such a job gives people the option to travel across and experience local cultures, while making a good living.

Transferable skills like project management, marketing, or even code-writing, can be harnessed into non-traditional job streams to create travel friendly career options. Options that did not exist earlier

4. Giving up the idea of job-security

Since the big economic meltdown of 2008–09, the concept of job-security is pretty much obsolete. One of the key attractions of a “regular” job was the security that it provided. However, once you get past the need for job-security, it is possible to embrace the idea of being a contract-worker. It is already an established concept in many developed nations and is increasingly gaining acceptance in the developing world as well. Going “freelance” enables you to manage your time better and devote more of your efforts towards travel. The 5-day week is slowly being replaced by the 9-month year, wherein people are increasingly finding ways to spend 3 months of the year travelling. The key is to be open to the idea of contract work and develop skills that continue to be relevant in a changing world.

What do you think? Are there any other aspects of your work-life that you can manage differently to enable you to meet your travel need? 

Transitioning to a Digital Nomad — Learnings from my journey

I’ve been blessed with friends who introduced me to travel, and barely a few trips later (within & outside India), I enjoyed it more than I expected. About a decade ago, 2 domestic trips & 1 International trip didn’t seem too far-fetched. Sixty trips (before I turn 60!) were the ultimate aim.

Then came a crucial aspect of taking time off for these travels and funding it. The annual 20-day vacation to force-fit holidays didn’t sit well with me (more like ticking boxes).

At the time, location-independent roles were scarce, and the concept was still relatively nascent. But Remote year was something that I stumbled across. Due credit has to be given to this portal for being the eye-opener and the first step in gaining immense clarity on what I was working towards. Escthecity.org was another portal that was a pleasant surprise with the roles on offer.

Cut to the present world, a post COVID world to be precise, where there is a surge in remote working and the rate of adoption has been phenomenal. What was previously thought impossible now seems like the new normal, albeit with a pause and considerable dip in travel.

Having worked remotely for more than a decade, it was something that came naturally to me. Having said that, few and far remote roles suddenly exploded into so many more available, and now a matter of finding your niche (sustainable at that!). Experience can be additional baggage that you end up paying for much more than what you initially bargained for.

Without stagnating further, I decided the logical next step was to translate ideas into action.

From my limited experience, I would have loved for it to be broken down like this a few years back -

Pre transition
1. Significant research required — translating to investing a lot of your spare time, also may mean having to sacrifice binge-watching TV series, reading the latest best-seller, having to say NO to a couple of social events)
2. Matching your areas of interest with something that makes sense commercially
3. Understanding the risks involved and having a fallback plan in case things go down south rather quickly
4. Setting aside funds and being prepared for zero income while in the transition phase for a set period that works for you
5. Acquiring skills/re-skilling in an area of your choice (for example, digital marketing, product marketing)
6. Connecting with folks in your area of choice on LinkedIn and Social Media
Trying out internships and volunteering to gain actual experience via Indeed, LinkedIn, Upwork

Actual transition
1. Take a sabbatical for about 4–6 months from your current role and put to practice the skills gained.
2. Experimenting/trying out co-working spaces in the current location or other locations based on budgets and the need for change in the environment
3. Either via freelancing or on contract — this is when you would actually start earning money and sustain yourself.
4. Continuing to re-skill / up-skill and keeping up with trends in the chosen field

If you are ever thinking of transitioning roles and doing something completely different would suggest reaching out to Arjun Prakash — PIVOT

Post transition
1. Share learnings
2. Help others/pay it forward
3. Keep collaborating
4. Specialise in a couple of areas, if you can

Hopefully, I’ll be able to cover much more with specifics on how I started from scratch learning Social Media/Digital Marketing with plenty of links.

Lastly, never stop enjoying what you do. Life’s too short to be lived with regrets and transient to be spent thinking, “What could’ve/might’ve been?”.