What I Learnt From Living In a Hotel
I’m writing this from 39,000 feet in the air while on the way to Penang. We’ve just checked out of our hotel, grabbed a coffee and jumped into an uber to catch our flight on time.
Focus.
That’s the best word I can find to describe the past month in Chiang Mai. We originally came here because we heard that it was a popular destination to work from with an abundance of cafes to choose, great wifi, friendly people and an active community of remote workers.
Focus is exactly what we needed. Camille, my wife and co-founder, and I left Switzerland in early November in order to focus on the rebranding and realignment of our agency. We felt that giving ourselves some distance, well 8000+km worth of distance, would help us better assess what we’ve done in the past year of work and what to do in the following months.
Our journey first brought us to Kuala Lumpur, then to Bangkok, a quick side trip to a resort in Hua Hin while my laptop was being repaired, back to Bangkok to pick up my laptop, and then to Chiang Mai for where we’ve stayed the past six weeks. When we first embarked on our journey to South East Asia we didn’t set ourselves a strict agenda asides from getting work, rest and lastly, be spontaneous. But not only did attempting to be spontaneous prove impractical when trying to get work done but also expensive and not so relaxing.
By the time we decided to go to Chiang Mai, we had lost two weeks of what could have been focussed working time, by trying to be spontaneous. As our deadlines started getting pushed back and out of fear that we would only continue down this path, we came to the decision that we would outline and stick to a plan for the next 2 months. This meant booking accommodation and flights in advance, scoping out the best places to work from, getting monthly gym memberships, planning days off, renting motorbikes to get us around and eliminating as much unnecessary decision making as possible.
The first three weeks in Chiang Mai were spent at an Airbnb flat 10 minutes motorbike ride from Nimmanhaemin road. Whilst this proved a decent and affordable place to sleep, it was still impractical. We were losing unnecessary time and energy doing mundane tasks* like washing and drying our laundry, cleaning our flat, fixing wifi issues and dealing with an Airbnb host who was based abroad.
*when you’re in SE Asia, for only a few dollars extra someone else can take care of these tasks whilst you put in an hour more of work.
As the time came to move out of the Airbnb flat we decided we would pick a place where all these mundane tasks would be taken care of and that would allow us to focus more on our work. In search of a new place, Camille and I hopped on our scooters and visited over 20 condos in the area until we finally committed to staying at a hotel just a minutes walk from the main street. It was one of the priciest places on our list at THB 20,000(~$560) for a 32sqm flat, one month rental, but it was extremely convenient. For only about THB 5,000 more than the other options we looked at, we had electricity, wifi and water included into the price, a 24 hour reception, covered parking spots for our bikes, a small gym on site, a great pool, free drinks and snacks everyday between 10am — 4pm and cleaning twice a week (we got lucky and they gave us free cleaning every day of our stay by accident — can’t complain 😏) .
The hotel also had an ideal location, located right next to Maya mall, a major shopping mall which has its own supermarket, a movie theater and plenty of food options. My gym, GoGym Chiang Mai was a five minute drive away and we were just two minutes off Nimmanhaemin road where all our favourite places to eat and drink are, like Barfry, Seescape and Yawee bar. But the best point about the location was that right on our doorstep, built into the hotel grounds, was the perfect cafe to work from. Not only is this place open every day from 7am — 7pm, but they also have some of the fastest wifi in town, cheap drinks and the friendliest staff who greeted us every morning with huge smiles and a Sawadee ka!
Deciding to live in a hotel for a month was one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made.
The past month living here has been one of our most productive and relaxing working experiences all year. Living in a hotel meant that we didn’t have to worry about cleaning, cooking, moving around or finding wifi. Instead we could focus on our work and the activities we enjoy. For myself, I had a daily routine which I stuck to for 24 of the 30 days we stayed there:
In the past month we’ve been able to completely restructure our services, come up with an awesome new brand identity, source new clients, present at FuckUp nights Chiang Mai, make new friends, begin working with new partners in Switzerland and launch our agency website.
All the while I was able to get back into training which I’ve been neglecting for too long. Some of my training PR’s I’m post proud of are:
Initially, when we first had to pay the THB20,000 for the hotel I felt as if we were wasting money. But looking back now one month later I realise it was a fantastic investment.
The three key lesson I learnt from living in a hotel for a month are:
- It’s a great way to get work done
- You still need to plan to get things done
- There’s more to life than work
Lesson 1 — It’s a great way to get work done
As our work at OneRoof allows us to be based wherever we want during a few months of the year we’ve decided to make this a regular event. Things in Swiss Romandie always slow down in December (too much fondue and mulled wine) but this is also one of our favourite times to get work done. From now, while its cold and snowing in Lausanne, we’ll be flying out to a cheap, beautiful and warm city with good wifi, booking a hotel there for a month and working remotely. If your work also allows you to be based anywhere and you’re looking for a change of scenery, I can’t recommend enough doing something similar.
Lesson 2 — You still need to plan to get things done
The month would have been a complete waste of time and money if we hadn’t stuck to a work plan. Somedays it was too tempting to just say fuck it and lay in bed for a few more hours or laze by the pool all day. Having a plan, clear milestones and your partner holding you accountable was a key factor into having such a productive month.
Lesson 3— There’s more to life than work
Contrary to what I believed three months ago, I don’t need to be putting in 8 hour work days everyday. I don’t need to have my laptop on me at all times. I don’t need to always be plugged in and reply to emails within the hour. It’s okay to take some time to do non-work activities. Actually, it’s essential to avoid burning out. Back in Switzerland both Camille and I got so caught up in our work that we stopped focussing on the other non-work activities we enjoyed. For Camille, that meant she stopped making her artwork a priority and for me that meant missing training days to instead work another hour.
We believed these were all essential sacrifices we had to take as our business was growing and that if we put in the work now, we’d be rewarded with more free time later. But this is a broken mindset. After six months of non-stop work, both Camille and I began getting easily irritated, tired and less productive. Plus it was becoming clear if we didn’t make the time, free time would never be coming our way. As Parkinsons law teaches us, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
By taking time off to do non-work activities I’ve forced my work periods to be shorter, right now I’m achieving around 4–5 hours a day, 6 days a week, sometimes I work in the evenings too but it’s not essential. Paradoxically, I’ve found the more time I took off, the more work I got done. I began working smarter, not harder.
Our flight back to Switzerland on the 8th February is quickly approaching and I’m accepting that it will be difficult to keep up the level of productivity, focus, relaxation and fitness we’ve achieved here. Of course, living in a hotel is off the books and we’ll have to adjust our routine to include spending some time and energy doing our own laundry, cleaning and cooking. But with some changes to our daily schedule, I’m confident we’ll be able to stay on top of our work and keep ourselves from ripping each other apart.
As for the destination of our next workation? I haven’t put much thought into it yet but everyones recommending Bali. I’m leaning towards somewhere in South America. But really anywhere with a beach, warm weather, great people and good wifi will do. If you’re reading this and have any good places you’d recommend, I’d be more than happy to hear them :)
Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed todays article please hit the ❤ so I can show off to my friends.
Written as part of my series, “What I learnt from..” where I try to learn things from random situations I end up in. Read another lesson I learnt:
Arman Anaturk
Co-Founder at OneRoof.Agency, Vice-president at FoodHack, organiser of Product Tank Geneva/Lausanne. Find me eating food and travelling on Instagram, debating on Twitterand not sure what exactly on Linkedin
