Bali coworking lessons learned

In September, I was working remotely from Bali as a software engineer. It was the first time when I worked from a different place than the office or home. While working remotely from home for the last 3 years, working from coliving spaces, coworking spaces or hotels was very challenging in some aspects. I would like to share lessons learned and the pros & cons of such a journey.

Internet problems

Coworking places are promoted with the super-fast internet connection even 500 Mb / s. In our experience, we got 130 MB / s maximum speed in one place, but the lowest speed we got in that place was 1 MB / s. After reporting that to the staff, they informed us that someone is downloading a really big file and they decreased the internet connection for that person. I think it should be solved by default and people should be able to download files, but without taking down the entire network. Coworking places also have multiple access points with a divided network between them, so changing the room and restarting the connection might help you get full speed again. Sadly in most places staff will only tell you to restart your computer or internet connection without solving the actual problem.

Lessons learned:

• Get an apartment with 100+ Mb / s internet instead of a coworking pass, you will get a more stable connection divided by fewer people.
• Test coworking places using a 1-day access pass, in some places it is free.
• Choose places with an internet connection speed of 300+ MB / s.
• If you get connection issues, ask staff to fix them. If they can’t fix it, it might be a sign to change the coworking place.
• You might change the room to get the internet connection from a different access point.
• If you don’t provide a good quality internet connection, video or screen presentation might be really slow or not possible.

Events in coworking places

A lot of coworking places offers integrations like dinner, speed dating, pool party, or presentations. While it is sometimes nice to have additional activities for free, it might be problematic and show you as unprofessional, when you have loud voices in the background or you can’t hear your client. Places like this have usually a very limited number of call rooms, so it is usually not an option to get a private room.

It is not a problem in a coliving place, because you can just go to your room and have the same internet connection as in a shared space.

Lessons learned:

• If you use the coworking place, check the place calendar, if you have a call while there is an integration book a private call room.

Work-life balance

In Poland I usually work from 8 AM till 4 PM and it is quite common for me to think after work about work. When I was working in Bali I used to start work at 2-3 PM and finish at 10-11 PM. Thanks to that I did not have much time to think about work after it and I was getting up with a fresh mind. Starting work in the afternoon has more benefits in the winter when it is getting dark quite fast you could make use of all the daylight and work most of the time at night. And of course, visiting such a beautiful place as Bali encouraged me to explore it.

I have also spotted a performance increase. In the mornings we sometimes are not on “Full speed”, while when working from 2 - 3 PM I was always ready to rock! and since I finished quite early 10 - 11 PM I was not tired at the end of the work. So it might have some positive impact on work.

Summary

Working and traveling might be really challenging, but I think it is possible to do it for a whole year. As with remote work, it was also challenging at first, but right now a lot of people work from home. Working and traveling will be for sure much more challenging, but you can definitely get over them if you will plan up front. I really recommend trying it out for some time!