Work From Anywhere: How This Mom Travels & Works on the Road in an RV

I love working.  I love traveling.  And for years, centuries, we, as a society, mostly felt like those two things were incompatible.  We’d work for months to take a two-week trip once a year, trying to pack all the fun into a short amount of time.

But now, with technology and an ever-changing job landscape, we no longer have to be so limited.  I work during the school year, fairly anchored – it’s true, it’s the nature of my job.  But I also work during the summers, even as I travel the country with my daughter, because we don’t always have to be tethered. A lot of people have jobs where they can work from anywhere at any time, but they worry their productivity will drop if they hit the road.

It doesn’t have to!

Making Work From Anywhere Work for You

The trick to working while you travel is to plan for it, to accommodate both parts of your life.

Choosing the Right Remote Work Set-up

First, you’ll need reliable internet.  Whether you’re a coach, an online educator, a writer, a programmer…doesn’t matter, you need internet, at the very least, to submit completed projects.  Consider how often you’ll need internet – all the time? Once a week?  Then consider how you can make that happen.  On my RV, I have Winegard which gives us internet at any campsite.  Other people may be fine visiting a café in a major city for a few hours once a week to do some uploads.  You can also look into mobile service providers that let you use your phone as a hotspot, so that you don’t have to go seeking service.

You’ll also need a workspace.  I’m a fan of a mobile office concept.  Essentially, you set up a bag or a crate with your entire office – it’s small enough not to take up too much space in an already cramped RV, and it’s portable if you want to work from a café instead of the RV dining table.  In it, keep a notebook, pens, your laptop, and anything else you need.  With the technology advances we’ve made, you can get pretty much anything in a smaller, easier to store form, like printers and scanners, even computer screens, if you like to work on two or three screens at a time.

Staying Organized & Productive

Once you have a good set-up, you have to make sure you’re organized.  Let all those Type-A tendencies out!  Make sure you have a planning system to keep your to-do list, and track any upcoming deadlines, whether you prefer a paper planner or an app. 

You’ll also want any software or tools that make your job easier, whether it’s a project management app, a video editing program, or a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to block out distractions.

The Perks & Challenges of Working on the Road

There’s good sides and bad sides to working on the road.  It’s amazing to have the freedom to explore, to set my own schedule based on how I’m feeling that day or where we are.  Sometimes I work in the morning, then we go for a hike or into a local town in the afternoon.  Other times, we might spend one day at the RV getting stuff done, so we can explore more freely and extensively the next few days.

However, it can also be exhausting.  Sometimes, I plan a travel day – half a day of driving, then some time to get stuff done – but a little setback can spiral.  For instance, a few years ago, we had tire problems in Texas that spiraled into a week of repairs, and ended with us cutting entire states out of our plans and doing far less activities than we intended, since we got less done while driving back and forth to repair shops.

We’ve found that the bad can be mitigated however, by talking openly, having some loose routines, and then embracing the art of flexibility.  During the tire incident, for instance, I asked my daughter – “We can stick to our plan, but faster, hitting these cities in back to back days, we can skip this state, or we can celebrate your birthday somewhere other than where we planned.”  We weighed the pros and cons, and decided on a plan that we both felt optimistic about – staying where we were for a few weeks to enjoy it and let the stress go, then slowing down our travel for the rest of the trip, even though it meant cutting out California, Oregon, Idaho, and more.

We also generally plan one RV day per week – a day where we don’t leave the campsite.  First, campsites often have their own activities, but this is also when we do laundry, clean, sleep in late, and catch up on any work we haven’t gotten done.  It also makes the trips feel a bit more homey.

Last, acknowledge and accept your limits.  Driving the RV gets stressful for me if I do it for too long, so we limit how many miles we’ll drive in a day.  This keeps me more relaxed, and it’s led to us exploring towns that we otherwise wouldn’t have even known about, just because they’re a good stopover. 

The Fun Side Of Working On The Road

There’s no point in working on the road if you’re not enjoying the travel aspect!  Make time to explore.  One way is to let time zones work for you.  If you’re from California, you can visit the East coast and have most of the morning available before your company’s business hours even start.

If your hours are flexible, provided your work gets completed, you can work late and free up the day to explore.  I like half-days – explore, meal, work, or vice versa. Find little activities that don’t take all day – those are some of our favorites, and they can get overlooked.

Also, spend longer than you think in a town.  It’s easy to focus on the tourist attractions, but you’ll miss the little local fun that makes towns special, like a carnival, or the art class at the library.  By spending a bit more time, you give yourself a chance to explore without feeling pressured to move on.

So where will you go first when working on the road?  Any tips for others looking at a more flexible lifestyle?