Personal boundries when you work in 3+ time zones with Anna & Kait

As the digital nomad movement is growing more and more people find themselves in part or full-time digital nomad jobs across the world and in different time zones. To work from home or even in paradise can be a dream come true, but when being half a day apart from both teammates and clients, even small tasks and meeting deadlines can be one heck of a difficult nut to crack.

So how can you actually manage your work when you’re dealing with clients and remote colleagues in different time zones? We have gathered a few nomad tips from two experts and power ladies. Kait Rich is an Entrepreneur Coach and Anna Shilina is a Virtual Team Implementor, Author and Speaker. Watch the full interview with Kait here and Anna here. Or keep reading!

The time zone struggle of the Digital Nomad Job: Where to start?

Kait and Anna agree that the best place to start is with yourself. “You need to know what you need to do to maintain powerful energy which your clients or colleagues expect, even at the most random times a day,” Kait says. Furthermore,  your energy pretty much contributes to everything you do throughout the day. It plays of all the people that come into your life and they will either be attracted or repelled by it. Finally, being in a “flow state of mind” with your physical and mental health balance is the absolute key when working across timezones.

3 tips to master time zones as a digital nomad

Digital Nomad Tip #01 – Find your own perfect workflow

In order to do so you have to find your own workflow and more importantly stick to it! It’s really easy to start planning your entire life around other people’s schedules. However, this often results in you getting up either super early in the morning or having meetings at 2 am at night. Sometimes this might be necessary, but please remember that you started this nomadic lifestyle for a reason, which was to enjoy it. Kait’s advice is to define how your ideal day as a digital nomad looks like and then start to plan around it. If that means breaking up your workday with an afternoon surf session or yoga in the morning then so be it.

Digital Nomad Tip #02 – Set boundaries for your own agenda

It can be tempting to work till nine o’clock in the evening or just “quickly” fix something at 3 am. However, to prevent yourself from working 24/7 and ending up in a burn-out situation, you need to have some set of rules. According to Anna this can be anything from ending your workday at 7 pm or limiting your work goals to 3-5 main ones for each day.

But when being the only teammate remote it can be hard to stick to those boundaries. Normally when people make a boundary and break it, they have some sort of story about what it says about them. Maybe it’s about them not being willing to sacrifice what it takes to do the work or about the fear of clients or colleagues perceiving them as unprofessional. Therefore it is crucial to be transparent and envolve others in your digital nomad lifestyle. Hence, if they are aware of your challenges they will learn to respect your boundaries.

Digital Nomad Tip #03 – Creating a structure gives you freedom

​Structure will put your mind at ease and provide freedom. So, in‌ ‌the‌ ‌end, it all comes down to planning. In a job in the “real world” someone is most of the time telling you what to do and when to do it. But in digital nomad jobs, you have the opportunity to do anything at any time. According to Anna, this can both be a blessing and a course as it requires a strong sense of discipline both mentally and emotionally. But by planning your time effectively you will actually end up having more of it

Key Take Aways For Nomads

✅ Find your own workflow and map out your ideal workday

✅ Take care of your physical and mental health in order to maintain your energy

✅ Set boundaries for yourself and enroll clients and colleagues in the digital nomad lifestyle

✅ Plan your time and schedule your day ahead

A big thank you to Anna & Kait for sharing these Digital Nomad Tips