I didn’t do a good job of publishing my monthly round-ups recently as my life shifted drastically towards more experiences vs reflections. I still want to keep up the learnings regularly so Months 3–5 will come in a flurry. A friend I met in Cape Town suggested I do a 50 lessons article at some point, so these could well make it onto a grand summary.
My quote of the month…
Crazy how day by day, nothing changes, but when we look back, everything’s changed
@katfinessed on Tiktok
Sunshine will make you happier
I had this theory for a long fucking time. A long fucking time. Living in the UK for the past 20 years made me appreciate the sunshine when it did come. I don’t have a source for the average UK city, but you can ask anyone that has lived there and you’ll get the vibe.
Since I left in September, I have had about 80% sunny days in my life. I had gone from Germany, Spain to Nepal & India in 3 months. When I started living in Nepal in early October, I would start my mornings by sitting in direct sunlight first thing in the morning. I didn’t have any work interactions due to the time differences, which gave me ample time for myself every day.
The physical and mental changes of this shift have been tremendous. The physical feeling of sunshine on your skin is that of deep warmth. Sure it’s warming your skin, but it goes beyond that, it’s almost like your body is a sponge, soaking up every ray and filling your body. Mentally I know that early morning sunshine gives my body the right signals to wake up & be productive.
I never want to go back. I don’t need sunshine every single day, I don’t sad if I don’t get it. But I sure as hell know my life is better when most of my days are filled with shadows instead of sweaters.
Stay with your friends
I’ve been fortunate enough to have friends internationally. It’s a combination of a British-Asian upbringing, the diversity at the University of Manchester and working in a metropolitan city like London.
I stayed with friends in both Barcelona and Delhi. We lived together for a few weeks, and it was like being in the same house in boarding school. We would joke around, cook food and play sports together. It was an awesome bonding experience, both cities helped to grow my friendships in very meaningful ways.
Previously I would be worried about being a burden if I was to stay with a friend. I’d be thinking things like, will they mind me staying for a while, is it bad I’m not paying rent, will it get annoying always being together. But now I’ve shifted course to make sure my friends are fully comfortable with me staying over, and are in the headspace of ‘it will be super fun hanging out’, otherwise it’s not a vibe and I’d rather get dinner while I’m there.
I was in Barcelona with Marta, who also works with me at ZeroToDesign, but we’ve known each other for years already. Akshay is almost a brother now and has hung out with me more times outside London than in it, somehow. We shared some great memories. Grilling large spreads for friends, working out together, going out in the town, immersing into their friendship groups, and road-tripping around the city.
It felt incredibly fulfilling spending time with people who aligned with me mentally. It helped to nurture our friendships and create new ones within existing circles. Life feels good when shared with great people.
Immerse yourself into the local cuisine
We’re spoilt in London when it comes to food. Nothing is off-limits, there is a restaurant or market that will probably have food from anywhere in the world. Like the 200+ languages spoken in the city, the culinary variety is just as high.
But getting to try local food, especially with local produce hits different. I had some awesome seafood and tapas in Barcelona, my stomach was filled with croquetas. Tasting Indian food in India for the first time was special, I had tandoori chicken almost every day. I headed to restaurants out of town in Nepal and had so many thalis.
I’d highly recommend getting stuck in and embracing the food that a city has to offer. Ask the vendors and servers about the stories behind certain dishes and be amazed. Take local recommendations and push your limits a little. You might likely get food poisoning at some point but it’ll be worth it for the variety you get to experience.
Implement flexible rigidity
Flexible rigidity — a conscious effort to allow spontaneity to seep into the structure of a productive day
I’m in the fortunate and unique position that I am working as normal while I travel around. I haven’t skipped a beat with work, in fact, the opposite has happened. My productivity has increased as I’ve implemented good habits like daily sunshine and constant new social interactions to help me improve mentally and physically.
But this hasn’t happened just by chance. I’ve worked hard on two things. Deep Work and Spontaneity. My work is my #1 priority right now. I am building a business and growing as a designer, and I’m in grind mode right now. As a result, I need to know how to focus well. I started reading a book called Deep Work in September and it’s been a game-changer.
I give myself chunks of time to focus and get work done. From client work to planning Z2D tasks to writing articles like this. I’m fully immersed in these tasks as I do them, I wrote about this in my article on how to be 10x productive as a Digital Nomad. The journalistic philosophy of deep work has enabled me to be productive while being surrounded by distractions and adventures.
But I also want to give room for these distractions. They can lead to incredible and unexpected things. We all know how spontaneous experiences can lead to wonderful memories, and while I retain my #1 focus on work, I want to allow fate to play its hand in my life.
Flexible rigidity might be a morning of work, with some sporadic evening deep work sessions, and the afternoon becomes a vibe check at the time, for things like lunches with family, chats with my team or even workouts.
These are just a few of my tips & thoughts so far as I start my journey to work remotely. I’ll be sharing more as I go via Medium, and also on social media 📹
For cool photos: https://www.instagram.com/sakkybl/
For more tips: https://www.tiktok.com/@nomaddesigner
