I live in Norway now, and let me be honest, it’s freakin’ cold there. So I decided to move my office to South Africa and the Seychelles for one month. Here’s how it went.
I’ve started a social media management company. I’m the only employee and I can work from anywhere. Every six months I go somewhere new for one month and I work from there. This time I chose Africa.
Just hanging at the beach thinking about everything I should’ve done!
The Seychelles, where I spent my two first weeks, was the most picturesque place I’ve ever been. But...
There’s always a but!
They had absolutely no WiFi on the entire island. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Even though we stayed at a 4.5 star resort, they didn’t have a decent connection to the rest of the world.
Shocking.
This would maybe have been nice if I was there on vacay.
But I was there to work, so I got pretty frustrated when I realized on day one that getting anything done would be difficult. I also got a bit stresses on behalf of my clients. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it. So I did this instead:
I pretend like it’s no big deal, but this is how I really felt about the WiFi situation:
Very important side note:
The scarf I’m wearing in the pic above is bought at the souvenir shop at the resort because the airline lost our luggage. I wouldn’t be caught dead in this outfit.
So when I couldn’t work I took a long bath and ordered ice cream to my room instead. That’s what you do on vacation. Right?
The lesson I learned from remote working on a tropical paradise island is this:
Just don’t do it
After the two weeks at the Seychelles it was time to go to South Africa. When I landed it Cape Town and noticed that my phone picked up about 6382861 WiFi connections I knew I was in the right place. I had so much work to catch up on.
I squeezed in some hours of work at my hotel room the first day.
Then I teamed up with two friends from Norway who also came there to work.
We rented a house on Airbnb so that we could all work from there. It’s a three bedroom and three bathroom house located in Green Point, a quiet and nice neighborhood right outside the city center.
We all got sick of the cold in Norway and wanted to be somewhere else.
Cape Town hasn’t disappointed us at all. The place is amazing in all aspects. The food is probably my favorite thing about the city.
We’re fortunate enough to know the co founder of Woo Commerce and he hooked us up with an office space in their headquarters in CT! It was just so nice to finally have great WiFi and a desk. I had some super productive days here.
I’m finally caught up with everything and on track again. It’s been a great month all in all, and I’ve managed to get e pretty decent tan too.
To sum this up
Working from a typical honeymoon destination is not a good idea.
Working from Cape Town is the best idea I’ve ever had. Except for signing up on Steemit.
I donated the scarf to someone that needed it more than me! 😂
I don’t know where my next destination is. I’m open for suggestions.
Susanne
How about a nice trip to Greece on the coast of Aegean Sea? The weather has to be a lot better than Norway this time of year, and really isn't that far away...
I can see you set up on the balcony of a stone villa, the sun streaming down, wine flowing freely, and the bluest sky overhead... AND, if you go in March, I'll meet you there with my daughter for a drink! 🍸
PS: Looking forward to more posts from @hotelreviews...
Awesome -- the Seychelles are def. on my list of places to visit.
i totally agree with you sousan captown it's a great place.
The beaches of Seychelles are nice too, the only problem is the internet flow.
I hope for your next destinantion you will choose
country: Morocco city: Marrakech
You are Welcome
I think you can try other African countries to compare
Looks like an awesome experience.
You're on your way with a great idea. It 's nice to be able to do it all the time. I think this may be my dream job
I will love your to try Nigeria you won't comprehend or forget the experience
lol
Hello @susanne, nice initiative on the social media company. Hope u had a nice time st cape Town.
decoration is great: P
pleasant trip.
Have a nice day
This is really beautiful you're doing. Some people know that the purpose of life is to work like a robot. In your life, you are first. Everyone should learn from it. I recommend you should come to Turkey. Certainly you will not have a WIFI problem. 😊 The year is always a country with different beauty. @susanne
Lol
Working from a typical honeymoon destination is not a good idea and I'll add....at all
Smiles....
Come to Nigeria next please 😃
Sometimes I feel no wifi connectivity acts as a blessing in disguise. I end up doing things that I really wanted to do but because of hectic life schedule it becomes very difficult to spare some personal time. It's good that you finally were able to catch up with your work.
The Seychelles looks like such a beautiful place. And your airbnb in Cape Town looks so nice as well! Cape town is definitely one of the places I would like to visit at one point on my life so it was lovely to read about your experience :)
Oh my lord , no wi-fi ?
Baaaad news to, not happy at all to hear that , but for the ones trying to get out of the routine and get some air for themselves , ready to go .
Quite pleased by the photos ,clean and tidy( i see they are not lazy ).
Um.....Africa.
Hey @susanne, what a great idea to decamp for one month to work! This is the great thing about work today is that most of us only need a laptop and a phone and....er... the internet (sounds like the latter was a problem in the honeymoon leg of the trip - maybe they prefer their holiday residents to be thinking about "other things" than surfing the web ;)).
I am guessing that the new environment to work in lets you get more creative and clears your head. I normally find that searching out new coffee shops to work in (or even the train) allows me to get a load more done - and it sounds like you were super-productive in Cape Town!
A month away to work sounds like a plan....
How did you get that super old school steemit hat?!?!ive always thought about going to Cape Town ! Your stay looks amazing :) I’ve been following you for a couple days now And I love your posts ! Its really inspiring to see other steemians pursuing there dreams here. I.T gives me a lot of hope that I’ll make I.T also :) if you ever wanna here Music come check me out ! I’m a singer songwriter out of south Florida. I’m pursuing my dreams here and steemit has been life changing for me ! Have a blessed day @susanne and steem on ! Look forward to your next posts !
Come to Minnesota! We have a massive population of Scandinavians and the weather is very similar. So just come in the summer and enjoy our over 10,000 lakes. I would be happy to host you as well if you wanted!
Haha det så uansett veldig fint ut der du var, seeelv om det kanskje ikke var det perfekte stedet for å jobbe, men du fikk litt fri i det minste :)
Maybe Costa Rica is a good place. There you have the ideal mix of:
-- and you can also improve your Spanish
Glad to hear it's been a great experience. I've had the privilege of working in Africa(Ghana to be exact) for a few months as well. It was an eye opener!
Hey Susanne! Loved your story of the 1 month trip away from the cold.
May I suggest Malta, Cyprus and Dubrovnik as your next destinations (in case you haven't visited already ) .
I'm not a big fan of cross - continental trips. Plenty of stuff to see for me in good ol' Europe
Very interesting to hear your backstory @susanne 🤟🏼
How does this setup work? Meaning why exactly every six months? How is your venture set up resulting in that ratio? Don't know if my question makes perfect sense but hopefully you'll understand 😉
The Wi-Fi struggle is no joke, did you check the availability before? Or was it the classic "We have Wi-Fi" - but they really don't.
Sweet that you could get some productive days when you got back to Cape Town, and lucky you knew that guy at WooCommerce, perfect setting 🙏🏼
Hope you have better luck with the internet at the next place 😉
It's so cool @susanne, you are very lucky, have life as you want. Have a very good job and you are also born in a cool country. Unlike me, who has a very difficult life. The one I like in your country is, during the winter season. Because in my country there is no snow. I really want to see the beauty of snow. That is my dream. I just hope someday if I have the money I will go on vacation to the country that has snow.Thank you for sharing and hopefully you will be more successful.. :)
Nice that you found good WIFI again, and giving away the scarf!
Looks like paradise, still here in the European winter, enjoy your time there
Great to see you do this; the concept of a remote office is appealing. You need a sat internet service! What do you do for your social media business? I am a photographer with most of my following (50K ) on Instagram and another 30K elsewhere. Has been difficult to get any to migrate over to steemit. Love to know your thoughts on this.
I would love to have your job!!! Congrats on doing what you love! cheers @susanne
Help friends
Wow! Your post was everything I needed to read today. I just quit my high paid 9-5 job to start my own business and have the freedom to work from anywhere but also to live a life with purpose. Thank you for sharing your experience with us and if you want to ‘stop by’ in South Florida, let me know :)
Jealousy makes you nasty, so I'm going to be brief here... Your lifestyle fills me with jealousy! Wow! I know Cape Town and enjoyed your posts. Look forward to reading about places I do not know. If I were you I would do New York. But pick your time carefully. All the aliens from outer space land there...
I absolutely love the idea of working somewhere new for once a month. I'm living abroad at the moment, but i think this is an amazing idea! Maybe a whole new way of living for me. Thank you for inspiring me today, Susanne!
I see you had an amazing experience in Cape Town and it seems you are in love with African countries.I bet you if you should come to Nigeria, you gonna have the most amazing and blissful experience you've ever got.We have the best of foods.I'm happy following you @susanne
Sounds like you have a great life there @susanne! We don't blame you for leaving Norway this time of the year to opt in for southern Africa.
When we went to Ethiopia over Christmas, we felt the frustration of limited (very limited) WiFi, but it was a chance for us to detox. Obviously, you went there for work and needed it, so we feel your pain. Life lessons that we learn along the way create memories and experiences! :) Steem On!
You are seriously living a dream! What a great idea and to have the drive to follow through with the plan!