The ‘Home from Home’ Office

There’s no denying that Edinburgh is a beautiful city. Set against a stunning backdrop, it has a vibrancy that really comes alive – especially during festival season when there’s always something happening. It’s a place that offers a bit of everything: history with its castle, churches, and rich heritage, but also a thriving social and restaurant scene. It’s one of the few places I could genuinely see myself settling down and calling home.

Until recently, Emma would spend a couple of weeks each summer selling her handmade silver jewellery at the West End Fair – by far her biggest event of the year. Naturally, I would go too, knowing that as long as I had a laptop, Wifi (or 4G) and a mobile phone, my work as a web designer could continue relatively unaffected. At the very least, I could keep in touch with my customers and handle those inevitable emergency requests that always seem to appear the moment you’re away from your desk!

In 2023, Emma was at the event for two weeks, and I managed by finding a quiet café now and then to set up in. But in 2024, she was there for four weeks straight – no days off – a big step up. So, I decided to do it properly and booked a hot desk at The Melting Pot, just off Waverley Station. That became my base for the month and my first real taste of life as a digital nomad.

My workdays were typically split in two. Mornings started with helping Emma set up her stand before I made my way to my desk, usually getting there by 10am. I’d work until around 1:30pm, then jump on a bus back to the fair for lunch with Emma, giving her a chance to take a break. I wouldn’t stay too long – there was always plenty to get on with – but it was a nice way to break up the day. The office would close at 5:30pm, I’d jump on another bus, and I’d arrive back at the event to help shut up shop by 6pm. It all actually worked out rather well, though you were constantly on a schedule.

The days were long, and once we got back to our lodgings there were always chores to do, shopping to pick up, washing to get through. But there was also always time for making tea, pouring a glass of wine, or cracking open a beer.

But it worked. It demonstrated that if you plan it well you can operate from anywhere, and your customers are generally none the wiser. I think that the COVID-19 pandemic actually had a lot to do with it, where all of a sudden people were embracing video-calling technology (which had been available for decades) into their personal lives. This ultimately filtered through to the work environment, and has meant that Zoom and Teams is now the norm, and face to face meetings are the exception.

There is more to it than that though. You don’t simply pack a laptop and head off into the sunset – there’s quite a lot of planning that needs to take place before you lock the door behind you. Wherever we end up, whether it’s the unpredictable climate of Scotland or the beating heat of central Spain, the office needs to work, wherever it may be.

1. WiFi

First thing’s first, make sure the WiFi is up to scratch. There’s no “I’ll work offline for a bit” when you’re a web developer. You need solid, reliable WiFi – it’s essential, an absolute deal breaker. If you’re not 100% sure it’s good enough then have a backup plan (a portable hotspot and a ton of mobile data allowance).

2. Keep the Gear Simple (But Not Too Simple)

You need a decent laptop, something that’s reliable, lightweight, with enough power to run all the apps you use but not so precious that you would be bankrupt if something happened to it. Our weapon of choice will be a MacBook Air each, one of the M1 chip versions. They’re absolutely powerful enough for everything you need, and you can pick them up second hand at a good price these days.

3. Firewall & Server Access: Don’t Get Locked Out

One thing we realised (thankfully, before boarding the plane) is that our server firewall doesn’t know we’re potentially going to be out of the country. Our server is in Manchester, UK, and we’ve set up access restrictions for security. That means if we suddenly try logging in from a sunny terrace in Madrid, we’ll probably get locked out.

So, we need to modify our Cloudflare rules and update the allowed IPs in our server’s firewall before we leave. In the grand scheme of things, you could do all of this once you arrive at your destination, but you’ll have other more important things to figure out in those first couple of days. If you can deal with it before you fly, then just do it.

4. VOIP and Video Calls: We Need Both

We’ll be using VOIP to handle our voice calls with clients – cost-effective and reliable, so we can make sure we’re staying in touch without blowing the budget. And for video calls, we’ll stick with Teams, as we have Microsoft 365 licences already. It’s the go-to for our client meetings, and we can’t risk any technical hiccups during important chats. This is why your WiFi connection is so important.

5. Cloud-Based Workflow = No Stress

We’re cloud-based, and that’s how we like it. No external hard drives to carry around, no USBs to misplace. All our files are stored securely in OneDrive and SharePoint, so we can access them from anywhere. To make sure though, it does no harm to have important files or current projects stored locally on your laptop too.

6. Keep Good Working Practices

Remote work sounds great, but let’s be honest: staying productive when you’re not in your usual routine is harder than it sounds. We’ve talked about it and realised that having some structure is crucial. We’ll set clear start times and break the day up into focused work blocks. The difficult part is obviously going to be when we glance outside and see beautiful blue sky, and hear the terrace calling our name, but if we want this lifestyle we have to understand that it needs to be earned.

Where We’re At Now

Right now, we’re still in the planning stage, working out the details and making sure we’re setting ourselves up for success. There’s a lot to think about, but we’re getting there. If all goes to plan, we’ll be working from Spain this year – getting the job done while enjoying a change of scenery, and hopefully an improvement on the weather we experienced in Edinburgh!