Remote work is the new normal

‘As the culture of offices becomes more used to working remotely, it will shift the paradigm to working remotely as the new normal.’ Check out Brittnee’s independent professional journey started in Silicon Valley, continued in New York, and ended up in Thailand.

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your work.

Hi! I’m Brittnee Bond. I grew up near Silicon Valley in California and have always loved building companies, traveling, and empowering women. I studied Intellectual Property Law at University and worked in law firms for six years in the US (the last place I lived and worked was New York City), but I always craved traveling.I’ve helped launch and build coworking and coliving spaces worldwide and have lived outside the US for five years. I love community building and am always launching digital nomad networks around the world as I travel through different locations. Thailand is my home base, so I’ve launched Chiang Mai Entrepreneurship Association with my best friend Lily Bruns to gather and connect Thai and foreign entrepreneurs. We are also working with the government on launching a Nomad Visa for Thailand to give digital nomads here a clear status and legal way to live and work in Thailand long term. We also launch and run startup boot camps for the graduate students at Chiang Mai University because we believe it’s a responsibility to build up the local startup ecosystem with the tools accessible to us and do knowledge-share wherever possible.I’ve done a lot of business consulting for companies transitioning their teams to working remotely and spend a lot of my free time giving back to women entrepreneurs. I launched and scaled a side project of business masterminds for women entrepreneurs that are growing into a network of the powerful business ecosystem for women entrepreneurs worldwide. You can find my website here. Also, I’m always filming different adventures about my life on my Youtube channel.

Why did you choose to be an advocate for the freelance ecosystem? What was the reason for you to start your business and work location independently? Did a memorable incident steer your decision, and would you like to tell Ruulers about it?

I’ve always felt that everyone inherently should have the right to work remotely. We are well into the 4th industrial revolution, but our management styles are still stuck in the 3rd industrial revolution where people worked in factories and needed to be monitored in order to get the most output.In my six years working at law firms, I always volunteered myself to do extra work helping the IT guys set up systems so we could move towards being completely cloud-based while still within legal boundaries; it was a fun puzzle for me to figure out and the end result was getting to work remotely from a beach in Costa Rica in 2014 for my law firm.A big moment for me was leaving my religion, getting divorced, and deciding I was going to live abroad full-time and go after my dreams. I had nothing to lose because I was starting over completely. The full story is here.I didn’t know what digital nomads were but definitely felt the need for the community because I was the only one working remotely in my small surf town. It got lonely fast.So I started working on coliving projects because I wanted to create spaces for myself and others to have community and the resources to work remotely successfully (I had many failed attempts at finding stable wifi locations across Central America).

What are the biggest challenges of working location independent, and how do you tackle these challenges?

I think some of the biggest challenges are finding a solid working, exercise, exploring/traveling, and social routine. Most of us are raised in very structured environments, and having so much freedom of schedule can be overwhelming to the point where we become unproductive. And each time I get into a new country, I need to start over and carve out the routine again.The way I handle this is: I found the most productive time to work for me is from when I wake up to around 2 pm. So, my morning routine is: journal, yoga, meditate, run before 9 am and work until 2 pm, then lunch, and then finish anything that needs to be done and explore the town and hang out with friends in the evening.I get the most important things done first (self-care emotionally and physically + my work) before I do anything else and I feel great the rest of the day knowing I’ve taken care of what I need to.

You have traveled to more than 50 countries. Which one is your favorite place to work?

My favorite places to work are in this order: Koh Phangan, Lisbon, Berlin, Cape Town, Bali, Rio, Chiang Mai.

As remote working is becoming more common among companies and independent professionals, how do you think it will impact the future of the workplace? What are your expectations or predictions of remote working models?

I think more and more companies will realize the overhead of resources they can save on by being semi or fully remote companies and will transition their teams as such. I’ve seen models used at Google where 3 separate teams rotate through one office space by each taking turns working remotely during set days of the week, fully utilizing the space and giving employees more flexible work/life balances.I also see with Covid, most companies not really having a choice on whether they allow their teams to work remotely because currently, it’s a health concern in most places to work in the office. As the culture of offices becomes more used to working remotely, it will shift the paradigm to working remotely as the new normal.

How is your daily routine? Can you share it with us in a few bullet points? (You can include any activity that structures your day besides work and mention any favorite meals/drinks that are essential for you)

6:30 am wake up: journal and meditate7 am: run, yoga, and swim in the ocean (when I’m home on Koh Phangan)8:30 am: decaf coffee, oatmeal, and reading9 am - 2 pm: working with frequent breaks and lots of fruit and nuts and coconuts as snacks2 pm: proper lunch, a small nap, swimming in my pool3 pm- 5 pm: finishing off any work and doing more reading5 pm - onward: organizing an event or party; sunset on the beach with friends; dancing and going on adventures exploring whichever country I’m in

Are there any tools you find indispensable as you work remotely? Could you name some?

Google calendarCalendlyAsanaSpotifySlack