Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call what we’re on a “vacation” in the traditional sense, but it is a break from our normal routine in a place with better weather and fewer pets. So, I guess it qualifies on several levels. But working while I’m outside of my home office setting has proven to be no more difficult than working in my home office. And I’m the first to admit that my home office productivity is rarely great. So you have to keep the bar pretty low when you’re imagining exactly what I’m getting done while working remotely.

But I’ve found that from the standpoint of client contact and general information flow, I can work almost exactly as I normally would. It is in the administrative areas where things slip dramatically when I am away from my normal working environment. I decided not to arrange to bring QuickBooks or the printer/fax/scanner combination. As a result, I can’t do any real official accounting, generate invoices, write or deposit checks, etc. So anything related to that side of the business is going to have to wait until I get back at the end of the week. And despite those limitations, I did realize for the first time that I could do almost everything that I have to do from North Myrtle Beach that I can do from home.

With a cell phone, a laptop and a reliable high-speed Internet connection, I’m entirely capable of handling most aspects of our daily business activities without missing a beat. Granted, we’re in a relatively small space with a small baby and the increased distractions of warm weather and a great golf course immediately outside the door — but I “can” do everything that I normally do to keep things going. And this same approach would apply anywhere in the world where I have phone service and high-speed Internet.

There’s some freedom in that realization, knowing that I can leave for an extended period of time and not have to worry about slowing things down too dramatically. That said, there is always an anxiety associated with leaving my normal business routine for longer than a few days. We’ve been gone now for 3 business days (5 total) and I’m already creating reasons why I should be getting home sooner than we had planned. The fact is that there is little, if anything, that I could do better from home, but there’s a comfort level and a security knowing that you can be physically “there” in the event that “anything” happened.

Overall, I like the feeling of being able to work from anywhere, but the fact that I’m working keeps me aware of the fact that I’m not working in my normal setting, so it prevents any true relaxation. It’s still been a great trip — just not the “vacation” that I had hoped.

Tags: vacation jobs, vacation offices, working from home, working from the road, working on vacation, working remotely

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