I talk a lot about how Agi and I work while we are overseas... it's sort of the whole point of this site. We do give ourselves vacation time but usually we continue working when we are travelling. During our recent trip to Japan a thought struck me; am I missing out on experiencing the places I visit because I take time to work? Would other people actually want to do the same?
Let me start by giving an example of our schedule in Japan. This is not a fixed schedule but an approximation of what happened.
- 06:30 Wake up and shower
- 07:00 Work
- 09:00 Eat breakfast
- 09:30 Go out sightseeing
- 16:30 Get back and relax or do some work if necessary
- 18:30 Go out for dinner
- 20:00 Relax: read, watch a movie
We fit in roughly 4 hours of work and 7 hours of sightseeing without staying up late or cutting short our activities. Your mileage may vary but I think that's pretty good.
The thought I had was: would I regret using those 4 hours to work instead of seeing more sights or doing more activities? Would I look back in a year's time and think "Man, I should have got out and seen more of Japan."?
The conclusion I came to? No. I don't think so. We saw everything we wanted to in Japan and were tired out everyday from walking / cycling / snowboarding. The recommendation these days is to walk 10,000 steps per day; during our time in Tokyo & Kyoto we averaged 12,000 steps per day.
What would I have been using that working time for otherwise? If I look back on other holidays before I became a freelancer (AKA The Before Times) I don't think I did more sightseeing or activities. I probably fit in some more reading or had longer lie ins. To be honest there is a limit to how much sightseeing it is actually possible or desirable to do.
Did I feel like I hadn't had a holiday? Not at all, we loved our time in Japan and were able to spend longer there overall than we could have when we were salaried employees. In the past 6 months we have spent more time on holiday / travelling than any year of my salaried life. While writing this I just added it up:
- Koh Lanta: 5 days
- Kanchanaburi: 2 days
- Taiwan: 7 days
- Australia: 10 days
- Chiang Mai: 7 days
- Japan: 17 days
- Total: 48 days
That's on top of being based in Bangkok which is pretty cool in its own right.
I don't want to labour the point but this was a real debate I had, first internally and then with Agi. I wanted us to be honest with ourselves. We talk about how cool it is to work and travel but are we fooling ourselves and shortchanging our experiences?
I love being productive and I get bored doing nothing. I have never enjoyed holidays lazing by the pool. It's possible that our experiences are not representative of everybody but if the things I have described above sound good to you then freelancing is probably the way to go! Drop us a line and we'd love to discuss it with you.