Do you work to live, or live to work? For most people it’s an impossible question to entertain. In fact, you probably feel as if you have little say in the matter. Well, our podcast guest, Kari DePhillips shares her globetrotting adventures and a belief that her nomadic lifestyle is a future worth exploring for many professions.

Workationing, as the name implies, is the idea of location independence in your work life. Would you consider working from a tropical paradise or a beautiful European city? Can you? Should you? Listen to the ins and outs of this nomadic lifestyle as Kari discusses what went into her decision to make workationing permanent.

Here are a couple of questions we asked Kari, edited for clarity, as she works from Copenhagen, Denmark:

TripCast360: Many entrepreneurs who work from home struggle to maintain the discipline necessary to be successful. How have you been so successful maintaining that consistency of effort with the added distraction of working from some exotic locale or beautiful European city?

Kari DePhillips: It’s all about self discipline. What I also find in shaking up my environment is it knocks your habit loop out. So suddenly, you’re not doing the same things over and over again like you go to the same coffee shop every day. And that sparks a lot of creativity for me. It scratches a different part of my brain that I don’t usually use when you’re on the same set routine and you take the same path to work every day and you get your croissants at the same bakery. It’s been beneficial to me. I have 13 full time employees who rely on me to make sure that I keep the business running, I’ve got a lot of weight on my shoulders. And it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously. And so like that’s kind of the biggest barrier to entry or like the thing that keeps me on the straight and narrow when it comes to being productive while working in exotic locations.

TripCast360: What tools do you need to be effective as a workationer? And how, how do you manage time zones?

Kari DePhillips: It’s great, because I’m kind of a night owl anyway. And I’m six hours ahead of most of my team on the east coast. I’ve got clients and employees on the west coast as well. So that’s six and nine hours difference, which means I get to sleep in until like 11, if I want, that’s a good deal for me. And then like nobody really wakes up until 2pm my time so my mornings are free. I get to have like focused work time if I want to, where nobody’s emailing me, nobody’s interrupting me, that’s precious time for an entrepreneur and it’s hard to get, unless you’re six hours ahead. That often means like on a Friday, I don’t get to go out with friends, because I’m going to be working until 10 or 11 on Friday. So there’s some trade offs, but it’s entirely worth it for me. And managing time zones, especially with like tools like Zoom and what not. It’s not so difficult. Google Calendar really makes it easy for you.

To listen to the rest of our chat with Kari DePhillips: Workationing — Is it for You on our website TripCast360.com

Featured Images: Photo by Sladjana Karvounis on Unsplash