“When you commit to working on the road, you trade your comfort for the privilege of being anywhere in the world.”
In early 2024, my husband and I spent five weeks travelling across the US. We rented a motorhome to drive through California, and the plan sounded like the ultimate remote-work dream. I took two weeks entirely off, but for the remaining three weeks, I committed to working my regular hours.
At the time, I was working for a company based in Singapore and in the Jakarta time zone. The math seemed perfect: I could spend the entire day exploring the California coast, and when 7:00 PM rolled around, I would simply open my laptop and start my workday just as Jakarta was waking up.
The reality? It was an absolute timezone tango.
After a full day on the road—navigating highways, hiking, and taking in new sights—my body was completely drained. When 7:00 PM hit, the last thing I wanted to do was switch my brain into focus mode. The jetlag was terrible, and the exhaustion was heavy. But that was the hidden cost of the freedom I had chosen. When you commit to working on the road so you don’t have to burn through your annual leave, you trade your comfort for the privilege of being anywhere in the world.
This wasn’t my first time wrestling with time zones. Back in 2018, I spent a year and a half travelling to different countries while working a fully remote role. I remember being in Australia, forcing myself to wake up at 5:00 AM so I could finish my targets by midday, racing to catch the very end of the previous week in the US.
Remote work gives you the world, but it demands incredible discipline in return.
Today, my team in Indonesia works a similar shift—starting their day at 5:00 AM to sync with Australian hours and finishing by 2:00 PM. They love it because it gives them their entire afternoon back.
Working from anywhere isn’t always the glamorous picture of laptops on the beach. Sometimes, it’s fighting heavy eyelids in a California motorhome. But when you find the right rhythm, the trade-off is always worth it.
Over to you: What is the craziest place or time zone you’ve ever had to work from? Let me know in the comments below!
-EG
Elsya Goullet 
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