Every week I work. It’s not just travel. Without work, there would be no travel.
If I need to work 40 hours per week, or more, so be it. The reward is being able to spend my free time on all kinds of adventures around the world that I never dreamed I would be able to experience.
As my life takes me from place to place though, getting into a good work routine is still a challenge I deal with constantly. Staying motivated amidst the allure of sleepy mornings, fun activities, hanging out with new people and just walking around a new destination is not easy. Then comes the challenge of where to work. I need to find coworking spaces and good cafes everywhere I go so that I have a place to actually sit down and get things done.
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What do I do for work?
Some days my work involves answering hundreds of emails that come through the blog or social media, other days it involves the organization of my Wandering Earl Tours, the small group trips I run each year to a wide variety of countries around the world. And then there are the blog posts to write, social media posts to share, consulting sessions and my weekly newsletter to create. Putting together that newsletter alone requires a significant amount of time each week.
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What’s my work routine?
On any given day, I generally have three options as to where I can work.
I can work from ‘home’ (wherever I happen to be staying), at a cafe or at a coworking space.
Working at home allows me to dive straight into the work I need to do. I usually work from home whenever I have something very important that needs to get done right away.
Working from a cafe is for when I crave a different atmosphere, depending on my mood, to help keep me inspired. I usually do this when I only need a couple of hours to answer emails or if I have a task to complete that isn’t as urgent as others.
Working at a coworking space is perfect for when I really need to focus for an extended time. I can set up at a desk, put my headphones on and let the energy of dozens of other people working online keep me concentrated. Coworking spaces are usually designed to provide an optimal setting for work and I always look for one that has a lot of natural light, comfortable chairs and if possible, eye-pleasing views out the windows. If I can tick all three, I’ll have no problem staying for 6-8 hours and making some serious progress on whatever work I need to do.
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How I find coworking spaces with Coworkbooking.com
It seems that every town and city around the world has a bunch of coworking spaces to choose from these days, with many new ones popping up all the time.
When I arrive to a new destination, I do some research on Coworkbooking.com. They list every coworking space in over 1200 destinations, along with ratings, reviews, amenities and available pricing plans, all displayed in a clean design.
This way I can easily find coworking spaces by browsing what’s available, reading the descriptions, looking at the photos and narrowing it down to a few options that seem to fit my style and budget. If there’s a space I know I want to book, I can often book it directly through the website in less than a minute. It’s a straightforward, comprehensive resource that’s ideal for digital nomads who travel the world and need to quickly find suitable places to work.
The only downside is that you don’t get to see information for a coworking space until that space actually registers with the website. So there might be 20 places listed in one city, but if only 8 or 9 are registered, you can only read more details about those few. But it’s growing fast and more spaces are registering and more details are added all the time.
When I lived in Valencia, Spain, I checked Coworkbooking.com and found over 40 coworking spaces, several of which met my personal criteria. Within 10 minutes I had a list of the 3 places I thought were best for me and I didn’t need to do any other research.
The last thing I wanted to do was spend hours online trying to search for and compare my options. Having the one website where I can do it all makes a huge difference. It’s even better that they cover almost every destination in the world.
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Again, I don’t mind working at all. We all need to work. And with endless cafes and cool coworking spaces to choose from, it’s becoming easier to be super productive and efficient. The result is more free time to explore new countries and create long-lasting travel memories, something that seems like a sweet deal to me.
Where do you prefer to work while traveling? Any favorite coworking spaces?
The post How I Find Coworking Spaces Around the World appeared first on Wandering Earl.
