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In this week’s episode, I’ll be sharing my offbeat journey and talk about the pros and the cons of remote work flexibility, so before you jump into this freedom lifestyle and risk everything – listen on!

Listen Below:

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Transcription:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of my Offbeat Journey where I share the ups and downs of working remotely.

Today we are talking about the pros and cons of having flexible schedule because we often hear about the good, but rarely the bad. Don’t get me wrong, the bad is really not the worst, but it’s not always the perfect situation and I do have to say I have prayed and worked very hard to get to this point so I am really appreciative of being in the situation that I’m in. I’m not complaining. Don’t think that I am because I do love where I am, but it’s not always picture perfect.

So first, let me list out the pros for you.

If you do have or if you are going to or if you are expecting to have flexible remote work schedule, this is what you can expect to have. And of course, if you are in this situation right now, feel free to message me and let me know your own personal experiences as well because obviously everyone has different opinions, different experiences.

So I will share with you the pros first because it is the most obvious. It’s really what we often see on social media and what other people are talking about and what they’re experiencing as well. So the first thing I do have to say that we often see the most is freedom. You will have a lot of freedom to travel, to spend time with your family, run errands, work wherever you feel like you can be staying in the same location or you can travel to South America, Asia, Europe, wherever you want to be. And you do have the freedom to work whenever during the day.

You can work 5 a .m. the morning if that’s when you feel the most productive or you can work, you know, 5 p .m. if that’s where or when you want to work, right? So this has definitely been a blessing for me because this is literally what I worked hard to achieve. And honestly, having this freedom of time is so much more valuable to me than making a ton of money because in my personal opinion, freedom is the new rich. It is my equivalent of monetary richness. And I definitely feel that for myself.
I feel a lot calmer, a lot more peaceful. This is absolutely the life I wanted to achieve for myself.

Obviously, it’s not perfect. There’s still a lot of things that I want to do. But this is a great start for the life I do want to live for the rest of my life.

So the next thing that I do have to say is a pro with this lifestyle is the cost. There is a lot less cost to flexibility.

So having flexibility of work and remote having means also having the flexibility to work whenever or wherever, which saves me a lot of money. I no longer have to pay a lot on gas tolls, eating out for lunch, eating out with friends at the end of the week because, you know, you all go out to the bar, to the restaurant after that.

And it definitely has saved me a lot of money. And for those of you who want to move around, you can definitely move to a place with less rent or buy a place that has a lot less, you know, mortgage payment for you. So that is definitely one of the best things about this lifestyle is you can save more.

Sometimes you will get paid less, but because of all of the money that you’re saving, it’s kind of equivalent to if you were getting paid more anyway. So it doesn’t matter as much.

Now, the third thing that I do have to say is a pro for this lifestyle as well is being more productive. I’ve also found that when I have this flexibility, I’m able to become more productive. I actually end up having or working weeks ahead, having my work in advance. And because I will have bouts of moments where I just want to work and that’s what I just want to do.

And then I’m ahead of the game and that allows me to stress less.

So these are the top three things, honestly, that I have found to be the pros of having this type of lifestyle. I’m sure there’s other things that I’m forgetting. If you think that you have experienced other things for yourself, feel free to let me know as well, because I’m sure I have, you know, missed on a few things or a lot of things that are pros when you’re living in this lifestyle.

And maybe some of these things are not pros for you. And it could be the total opposite.

Now let’s get to the cons of having a flexible remote lifestyle.

Again, I don’t want you to think that this lifestyle is all about rainbows and sunshine because it’s not. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons because I would not exchange this lifestyle because of the freedom that I have achieved for myself.

But the thing that is a huge con for me once I started this and I and it was consistent for myself is loneliness. I really didn’t anticipate the loneliness that I would feel, especially when my friends and family are working a regular nine to five or even if they’re not, they have, you know, a family, they have children. It gets to be really lonely. You will still have to align also with their schedules when you want to hang out.

So it’s still going to be almost the same. You know, you still have to wait during the weekends to have fun with your friends and family. And if you don’t want to wait, you are going to have to do everything on your own.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if it’s constant and if it’s just you all the time, it does take a toll on you. It does get lonely in that sense.

Lately, to be honest, this has really affected me since most of the time, you know, I just end up staying at home because everyone is at work. I tried to find hobbies that will keep me occupied. And then obviously, I tried to do more work on my sites, tried to find contract work just to keep myself occupied with those things.

But it’s definitely not the same. And this could be a con for others as well as it has been for me, especially when you’re consistently doing this. And it doesn’t get easier. You definitelyjust get used to it as time goes by.

I have been a remote worker since 2017. So I have gotten used to it. But there are just days and times where I’m like, “I wish my husband could do certain things.”, I do have to say though, my husband does work remotely, but he’s a lot busier than me in terms of work.

So that’s definitely another episode of this. So you’ll need to learn how to entertain yourself and really be happy with your own company if your friends and family are not remote workers, or even if they are remote workers, they don’t have a flexible schedule like you.

Now, the next thing that is a con for me is prone to distraction. Like, this does still happen for me once in a while, but because I typically like to be ahead of my work, it doesn’t really affect me too much. But it did when I first started working remotely. One of the biggest hurdles for most remote workers that they will encounter who have flexibility is being able to set a schedule for themselves.

This means being productive and not get distracted by like Netflix, YouTube, video games, or whatever it is that you find more interesting than work at that time. It takes a bit of time to adjust, but once you do it, you know, it does become second nature. What I typically do in order to avoid this is to find space for myself where I do not have the distraction of watching a show.
I do put on some music or a podcast that is not distracting where I can work and focus at the same time.

Now, if you’re that type of person that anything will distract you, I have done this before I put my phone or any screen outside in a different room and then I have a timer and I time myself so that I’m not just working, working, working, and I don’t have breaks because breaks are so important for all of this so that you don’t get burned out as well.

And the last thing that is a con I do have to say is if you do like work, one of the biggest cons as well is one, to stop yourself from working and not burning yourself out. And that’s another thing that you really have to learn.

Time yourself if you have to set a real schedule for yourself, maybe work from 9 to 5, 7 to 3, whenever it is that you feel the most productive at and always take breaks for yourself. Don’t work all the time. I am definitely a culprit of that. I love like to work because when I don’t work, I just feel lazy and I hate that feeling.

So I think that’s why it does feel very lonely sometimes because if I’m not hanging out with friends or everyone is busy with life or with work, what I tend to do is I keep working and I don’t know when to stop. So that’s something that I’m still learning today. But yeah, those are some of the cons that I’ve definitely felt and I’m still figuring out even to today.

If you have any suggestions or if you have other personal experiences, feel free to let me know. You can send me an email at hello@theoffbeatlife.com.

I would love to hear your experiences or if you’re still trying to get into the process of having flexible work or remote job and if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email as well.

Well, that’s it for now and I will speak to you later. Bye!