Choosing Paradise to Focus

The Subforum on Distraction: Distraction and Distance Work

As part of our investigation into Distraction and the workplace, I’ve been talking to people who have found themselves in new or unusual working environments and about the distractions they have had to negotiate there. My colleague Elle Steiner made an interesting choice when faced with the reality of spending another winter potentially locked up in her Boston apartment, virtually unable to come in to work due to bad weather conditions. The previous winter, most of us had grown so used to working remotely that a kind of digital cabin fever was setting in. We had a certain amount of exposure to the outside through our screens, but very little actual three-dimensional contact. Even more distressing was our lack of exposure to the outside world; not seeing the sky or people passing, or the physical landscape.

To counteract this possibility, Elle made the wise decision to spend a few weeks working during the cold season in another climate. She chose Las Galeras, Dominican Republic, where there was only a one-hour time difference, affordable rent, and an environment that would enable her to focus yet still bask in the wonderful warmth of Southern hemisphere summer. I was eager to hear about Elle’s trip, but most importantly about how she coped with this new environment. Was all this newness distracting, and in what ways? What helped her workflow? What impeded her? I interviewed her shortly after her return to Boston earlier this year.

J: What do you do job-wise?

E: I’m a User Experience designer for a digital publisher. I’m working on project on a navigation redesign (as one designer in a group), and another project involving book content, related icons and links, and how intuitive those relationships can be for each other.

J: I’d love to hear some of your thinking behind how you generally work, how you establish your sense of focus, or get “in the zone”. It sounds as though your trip was in some ways a kind of positive distraction from your usual routine?

E: Absolutely it was a positive distraction.

I wasn’t anticipating this, and I’m trying to understand this better: But when I was there [in Dominican Republic], my setup was an outdoor porch of a bungalow, it was shaded with a covered top, and really warm, about 95 to 100 degrees (Fahrenheit), and I had a fan, and my view was this very pleasant look onto the grounds, so I was very relaxed and happy and I had zero stress and anxiety. My biggest stress was keeping the mosquitoes off me. I was so happy and comfortable and stress-free that I felt energized and excited to do my work, and it was so much easier to get things done, and I was happy to do it… and I was working out every day.

And then I got back here [to Boston] and I find myself exhausted for no reason, and kind of depressed — now that the sunlight’s been taken away and I’m in a different environment I can really sense the difference. I’m not as motivated, tired, like “why am I so tired?” I feel like I have to take a nap all the time. I never had to take naps when I was there. It was that positive environment — it just made me so much more productive. What a difference! It was also good to have distractions like having chats with members of the team, even if it’s just social chats.

But in the office, for example, being around people can be very distracting. When people are walking around you, just walking past you, it’s like these constant micro-breaks in your workflow. In the bungalow there weren’t any overheard bits of conversation, I didn’t have any distractions like that at all. I would just hear birds chirping, watching geckos running around and being happy. The whole pleasant experience just made me more happy and productive. And I wasn’t even anticipating that.

J: You had this interesting idea about why you wanted to work abroad, can you tell me about that, and how you planned it?

E: Since I can remember, I wanted to go away to a warmer place; my personality and body are just more suited for this. Then when that bad February weather hit last winter, and the snow came, it was like living in a small prison. We were snowed in, our car was snowed in, and when we did manage to get out to get food or supplies, it was whatever we could manage to carry in our arms and bring back. And I think generally when someone is miserable, everything suffers, mentally, physically, work life, social life, relationship life, everything. So I decided, if I’m going to be working remotely anyway (which is what we ended up doing for nearly all of February), then I should be doing it in a tropical paradise, which is what I always wanted to do anyway. That’s where the idea came from. The first week was vacation, get to know the lay of the land, and then I’d just stay on and work remotely.

J: And how long were you there for?

E: I was there for 33 days altogether.

J: Before you left, what are some things that you knew that you had to set up or take care of? What are some concerns you had about your ability to work remotely — for instance, did you have technical concerns, were you worried if this would work, or if the environment would be “too nice”, and make it difficult for you to work?

E: One thing I knew was essential to making this work was choosing the place I was going to stay. It had to have excellent Wi-Fi. I’d never been to Dominican Republic before, and didn’t know what to expect. I had to ask this woman (from whom I was renting) “How good is the Wi-Fi? Is it strong? Does it run 24/7?” That was the biggest concern. As for myself, I was not worried because I know myself. I knew that I was going to be so happy to be there that I could work until 5, and then go ahead and do the things that I wanted to in the evening, so this wasn’t going to be a problem at all. Aside from the Wi-Fi connectivity issue, making sure that I informed the appropriate people that I would be working abroad was the only other really important issue.

Otherwise, for preparation, I brought my laptop, pads of paper, a special bag to lock up my laptop, pens and Post It Notes, a little office, basically.

J: So it’s like you brought a portable office with you.

E: Oh yeah.

J: Is this a set up that you could replicate pretty quickly?

E: Yes, super easy, really quick.

J: Could you tell me more about the routine you fell into with each day? Part of our research has been about different workspaces and finding space for good distractions and minimizing bad distractions. So, how did you start your day when you woke up?

E: I definitely had a routine. Everyday I woke up, I would say “This is the best day of my life!” [laughs]. In every other case, you wake up and say “I don’t want to get out of bed, I don’t want to go to work”, but here it was really different. I didn’t even need to use an alarm clock because right as the sun got to a certain place, around 6:30 these birds would start yelling, and then sometimes I’d wake up and wait in bed for them to start, and then I’d practically leap out of bed. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I’d go running right after I woke up, you had to run earlier or later in the day because it gets so hot during the day. I got acclimated very quickly [to the weather], but it’d be about 80 degrees in the morning and I’d run about 3–5 miles, and then I’d start to set up my workspace outside on the deck of the bungalow. I’d shower, spray the mosquito repellent, set up the fan and be ready to work about 8:30 DR time (which is about 7:30 EDT). I had a small kitchen right next to me so I could cook right next to where I was working, but sometimes I’d like to get away. So I’d go into town for lunch. On Tuesday and Thursdays, I’d set up for working beforehand, and then I’d do my running after work. If you wait until about 5:30, then it would cool down enough to run.

J: So your physical activity was part of keeping rhythm in your routine?

E: Yes, definitely.

J: And how did you cool down from this workflow, to enjoy the evenings after having been working all day? Were there any problems with that, or was that also part of your routine?

E: No, anytime between 4:30–5, I’d just slow down what I was working on, and usually do some chatting to some friends as the day was ending — it’s a lot like working from home, you know “If I keep going, I’ll be at it for another hour”, or “If I stop here, I can pick this up tomorrow.”

J: You’ve talked about a lot of positive things — was there any time you felt pressures from the outside that were intruding? Were there lingering thoughts like “I can’t do this forever, sometime I’ll have to go back”?

E: Surprisingly no! Honestly, it was so positive. The single biggest issue was the mosquito problem. I had to spray myself in the morning, and I had to have the fan on me in order to make sure they would not land on me. That was the biggest distraction.

J: And was part of this concern from the Zika virus?

E: Right, yes — It was like this: Were they just distracting, or would I get Dengue Fever? When I’d talk to someone and they’d ask “Are you ready to go home” the only reason I’d be ready would be because of the mosquitoes. They were pretty awful.

J: Did you find any difference in this working situation from working with people at a distance from your usual place? Like say between Boston and Denver?

E: No. There was absolutely no difference; the experience felt exactly the same.

J: That part is interesting to me, since our group has talked a lot about Remote Collaboration. In general, I feel that this area is a bit behind the technological curve — the tools we have for remote collaboration are kind of clumsy.

E: It was so much like sitting in my apartment, that there was a specific problem that came up, and we got onto a chat immediately, and we worked it out immediately — just as if I weren’t in a different country.

J: So, if remote collaboration is working well, it should be seamless, like you’re just working next door.

E: Yes, exactly.

J: During the day, about how many touch points did you have with Boston? How much of your day was spent in Google Chat or in Hangouts, for example?

E: About 10 to 15% of my day on average.

J: You’re working in this idyllic environment, and at some point you had to take a look at a calendar and say “I’ve only got a week left,” or “I’ve only got three days left,” how did it feel to start to unwind and prepare to come back?

E: I didn’t. [both laugh]. I didn’t do anything different.

Well, I felt sad about leaving my paradise. I’d made lots of friends, I’d really “moved in” to this town, that’s how comfortable it was. But then there were some things; I didn’t want to deal with the mosquitoes anymore. I wanted to be free of them. Not being able to drink the water from the sink, having to carry these big 5-gallon jugs of water for everything, I wasn’t going to miss that. But when it came close to leaving, I didn’t even tell anyone there that I was leaving, I just left. It was going to be too sad. I didn’t think about it, I didn’t do any preparations; I just packed up and left.

J: When you did transition back and returned to the states, what did you notice most when you came back that was different? Was it like just stepping back into your routines, or did you have different view of how you work when you came back?

E: I wasn’t as productive here as I was there, there just were a lot more distractions here and I didn’t really notice them before. Because I was in a different place, now I noticed them. I was getting things done, but I was just “less present” here.

J: You’ve been an ambassador to this notion of working out of the office.

E: I’m very disciplined naturally, so I could do this, but there is something very cool about being able to do this in another country. Just knowing that you’re still able to get your work done, but “Look, I’m in the Caribbean” is really nice.

J: Did you feel that there was a problem that you weren’t having face-to-face meetings with people? Did it make you feel that you were missing out in any way?

E: I didn’t experience it when I was there, but maybe if I’d been there for 3 months or more, I’d miss out, and being in some face-to-face meetings would be pretty important, yes. Also, when I was initially picking out where I was going to work, I was first thinking about staying with my uncle in Hawaii, and then I decided that that time zone difference was going to be such a pain, and that I wanted to stay in the same time zone. Being an hour ahead [Dominican Republic] worked out really well. Even dealing with a zone like Central time can still be a bit of a hassle, just as it is Boston.

J: This big change of environment was a huge positive for your work — what do you think is required of someone if they want to do work like this? Are there certain ways they have to work in order for this to succeed?

E: The fact that I already had the discipline of working from home was helpful. I already had an internal sense of that. And also the simple fact that I like my job means a lot here. Liking your job, wanting to do it, being able to do your job when there isn’t anyone around to tell you to do it — I don’t know if that’s a personality trait or not, maybe it is — you have to have that discipline and desire to want to do your job and to do it well. There was a part of me that wanted to do this well so that I could do it in the future. I wanted to prove that “Yes, I can do this, and do very good work” so that I don’t have to be sitting in the office. And if I’m not in the office, does it matter where I am? That’s an important question. I mean think of it — does it matter if I’m in New Hampshire or in Puerto Rico, as long as I get the work done? So someone needs desire and drive, needs to take pride in his or her work, and want to get the work done.

J: So what I’m hearing is that this can’t really be done as an escape. Are you thinking about another venture, and what might that be?

E: Well, I really like staying within the same time zone, I’m thinking of Puerto Rico, so it’d be easy in terms of passports and money and I’ve started my research. I did a lot of research before I selected the Dominican Republic, now I’m researching everything about Puerto Rico, the regions, the culture, and finding flights there. This is something that I’d like to do once a year — just based on how rejuvenating it was for me, and it was so good for my relationships, for work, for me personally. It was such a healthy thing to do.

J: Working in UX and Design specifically, and the kinds of decisions we make for users and all of that, did you feel that being in a different place gave you some new perspective on our field?

E: (Emphatically) YES! Especially for what we do, it’s always good on the creative side to do new things, but because we are dealing with experiences for humans, we do have to see their experiences in other places. However, there was a favorite thing I saw that I thought “I have to bring this info back with me”, one of the big takeaways — I was in a very small fishing village, a touristy area, but small. The main roads were paved, but a lot of the roads were not paved, there were no addresses, they just got electricity just a few years ago, and they’re slowly improving, and it’s a small place in the middle of nowhere, and fairly poor. There’s no drinking water, you have to buy water. When you go into the bodegas in town, you’d see people drinking beer and I think this is mainly because of the lack of drinking water; when you go into the toilets, you can’t put paper into the toilets, so things are very rudimentary. BUT — there is something that they DO have EVERYWHERE. No matter where you go — so it’s not a matter of IF you have it, but “What’s the password?” Wi-Fi is everywhere. So, for instance, I was walking on the beach and there’s a little hut where you can sit and have drinks in the middle of nowhere, and yet they have Wi-Fi. And people are there on their phones scrolling through Facebook. They can’t drink the water, but everyone is on Facebook. If you have any questions about technology or about connectivity, even in this remote part of the world, it’s there.

J: So interesting the way that circumstances create design — it’s probably easier to solve the problem of how to get Wi-Fi than it is to get drinking water.

E: Yes, there was a huge tower for the town so that people could get it, but all this says a lot about human beings in general.

J: Definitely. You’ve got a really linked-in hooked-up populace there, in a kind of antiquated world, but they’re probably really knowledgeable about world events and what is going on everywhere. It really makes the argument about why “design for a digital product” is so huge.

E: Absolutely.

Elle Steiner is a User Experience Designer for Pearson Education, and a competitive triathlete.

John Biebel is a Senior User Experience Designer for Pearson Education, painter, freelance writer and member of Subforum.