WorkNomads promotes and encourages remote work in order to give people the freedom to live and work from anywhere, anytime. It should help our nomads create a better work/life balance and give them the flexibility to organize themselves around their professional and private commitments, desires, strengths and weaknesses.
The paradoxical effect of this type of arrangement means that the traditional 9-5 workday is gone. One of the most significant drawbacks of the endless digital workday is the constant state of distraction it fosters. Notifications flood our devices at all hours, demanding our attention.
While this level of accessibility has its advantages and creates opportunities, this continuous stream of interruptions makes it difficult to concentrate on important tasks, leading to decreased productivity and increased availability expectations.
Sounds familiar? At least for me, when assessing my work week, I find myself mostly productive early mornings, late evenings or working weekends in order to have quality focus time to produce valuable in/output for the business. At the same time, I noticed my expectations towards my colleagues increased when I was firing off emails and messages. The need of instant replies and information is something we’re expecting and demanding not only at work but also in our private lives. I guess everyone has experienced disappointment when your loved one after reading your text message didn’t immediately reply.
While staying connected is crucial in our interconnected remote world, finding moments to disconnect is equally essential. Intentionally carving out time for ourselves, is crucial for our overall well-being. Whether it’s a walk in nature, travelling, quality time with friends & family, or pursuing a hobby, these personal activities are quite well-accepted and encouraged outside of work and remote work greatly enables such.
However, we seem to struggle to carve out time to disconnect while at work. Despite efforts of putting in focus/creative time in our ‘shared calendar’, busy/do not disturb icons, such work boundaries are off disrespected due to high priority and urgency…or more often due to the expectations and the habit of demanding instant reactions and availability.
As a nation without a country, WorkNomads sought a solution that fitted our unique environment. After a team-wide vote, with a 75% majority, we introduced ‘Offline Thursday’ as our answer.
It’s a day where we schedule, NO internal meetings or emails, and stay away from Teams/Slack/WhatsApp/Viber messages. So far we’re 3 months into this trial and we see a 40% decrease in emails sent on Thursdays with no significant increase on other weekdays. This is quite an interesting result and calls for some reflection on how much of our digital communication is actually essential and how much is just extra noise.
To compensate for the lack of work-related contact on Thursday, we introduced Walk the Talk in the park. We encourage everyone to go for a 30-minute walk outside, reconnecting with themselves or with their colleagues wherever they are, taking time out of their schedule to connect on different levels. For our Sofia-based colleagues, we go for a walk in the park across the WN LAB hotel, while our remote colleagues can dial in and connect remotely while wandering in their part of the world.
While technology will continue to revolutionize the way we work, live and interact with each other, it’s important not to let it dictate our entire lives. By consciously setting boundaries, and creating habits that prioritize offline focus time, we will not only boost our productivity but also enhance our overall well-being and happiness. Together, at WorkNomads, we want to create a culture where moments to disconnect are another way to be connected as a community.
