Your Best Remote Work Summer Stories

There’s no doubt about it: remote work has its perks, and this is especially true in the warmer months. It’s not perfect, of course—it is still work after all—but professionals in remote positions enjoy the kind of flexibility the desk-bound set would give up their company-supplied ergonomic chairs for. Swimming post-project launch, shuttling the kids to activities in between meetings, picking strawberries during a “strolling” conference call—remote workers have told us how their virtual jobs enable them to delight in all the joys of summer without sacrificing productivity or forward momentum.

Below are some fun remote work summer stories:

She Sells Seashells Down by the Seashore

Silvina Furnadzhieva, a productivity consultant in Bulgaria has worked remotely for years and has “always enjoyed summer to the max! I regularly work from parks and other outdoor locations.” Since her work focuses heavily on productivity, she sets goals and then rewards herself for reaching them.

“Last week I rewarded myself with half a day on the beach for getting over 10% of conversion on my latest Facebook campaign, and right now I’m traveling to the seaside to join a couple of my friends who also work remotely and live in a small town by the sea every summer from June to September.” Sounds like a pretty spectacular approach to summer. You can almost hear the waves, right?

The Early Bird Gets the (Book)Worm

When you tell stories for a living, feeding that creative force is almost as important to your work as the work itself. Sandhya Ramachandran, a multimedia storyteller in Mumbai, starved that creative force when working the traditional 9-to-5, but knew there had to be a way to integrate reading back into her life.

“I used to be a voracious reader when I was a child. However, over the years, I saw myself finding excuses that supposedly kept me away from reading. Ever since I shifted to remote work, I’ve made a conscious effort to find time to read. Over the last three to five years, I have slowly increased how much I read. And this year, I have managed to reach my reading challenge super early! I have finished 30 books in the last seven months, all thanks to the time I saved from commuting owing to remote work. I am hoping to add at least 10 to this list before the year ends.”

To Grandmother’s House He Goes

Paul Millerd shared his heartwarming summer story while taking the bus to visit his grandmother’s lake house. “My only goal for the summer was to spend 50 days there, spending time with my family and relatives. The fact that something like this seems so out of reach for so many people saddens me and I hope that more people push to do the things that matter to them.” Have loved ones you could be hanging out with more often? As the pace of life and business typically slows in this season, you could plan to travel to visit friends and family more often—whether they’re across town, on another coast, or even in another country.

If you’re working remotely already, these stories may not seem like news to you. If not, well, there’s no time like the present for a change of scenery. (Perhaps during that next conference call!) If you’re still schlepping it into an office every day, thinking about—but never actually doing—any number of wonderfully fun seasonal activities, maybe this is the year you visit the beach, pick up a book, or more importantly, get out and do something that matters to you.