The Anti-Hustle Checklist: 7 Real Strategies for Remote Work Without Burnout
If your remote work life is feeling a little too much like the same old rat race with better views, it's time to switch things up. Here are a few ways to simplify and adjust your mindset.
Let’s be honest: hustle culture doesn’t travel well. I know there are plenty of tech-bros and crypto folks who’ll disagree, but this is a hill I’ll die on.
If hustle culture had its way, you’d be grinding from dawn to dusk, no matter what country you’re in or what beach is calling your name. That might work in a sleek coworking space with steady Wi-Fi and oat milk lattes on tap. But for those of us building a location-independent life with some actual longevity, the math is different.
If you’ve been travelling long enough, you’ve probably figured this out the hard way: trying to work from the road like you’re still in a corporate office leads straight to burnout and frustration.
Working less isn’t lazy, but strategic. It’s what leaves space for creativity and the higher-value work that drives greater revenue while sucking up less of your time. So here’s your Anti-Hustle Checklist… try these small, practical shifts that can make a big difference when you’re working from anywhere.
1. Choose Systems Over Willpower
When your location changes often, your routines can’t depend on motivation, or even memory. That’s where your systems come in. Build workflows that reduce decision fatigue, eliminate repetitive tasks, and adapt to your environment instead of resisting it.
Start with what you do every week: client updates, invoicing, content creation, check-ins with your team. What can be templated? What can be scheduled? What can run without your full attention?
Use tools that adjust with your time zone, like Notion databases set to your current location or Google Calendar entries that sync across devices. Batch similar tasks, so you’re not switching gears constantly between client work and admin.
And don’t just rely on reminders, create triggers. For example, my Google Calendar tells me every Monday morning that it’s admin time, no matter where I am.
Nomadic life introduces enough chaos on its own. Your systems should be the calm in the middle of that. Make your processes portable so you can spend less time playing catch-up and more time actually living the life you designed.
2. Set a Floor, Not a Ceiling
When you're moving from city to city, or just adjusting to a new time zone, spotty Wi-Fi, or a wildly enthusiastic rooster next door, trying to maintain “peak productivity” is a fast track to burnout.
Instead of pushing for an ambitious daily output, define your baseline. This is the smallest, most essential actions that keep your work (and income) moving. Maybe it’s a 15-minute client check-in, answering two emails, writing 200 words, and reviewing yesterday’s progress. Whatever yours looks like, keep it realistic and repeatable.
Your baseline is what keeps the engine idling without stalling out. And here’s the magic: once you hit that floor, you’re free. You can stop there, guilt-free—or keep going if the energy’s right.
Now, if your baseline is 6-8 hours long every day, you’re doing too much on your own. Maybe it’s time to see what you can automate to buy some of those precious hours of your life back.
3. Find Your “Third Space”
You don’t need the perfect office. You just need a decent third space… somewhere you’re not working from bed or trapped in a café with sticky tables, buying coffees by the hour to rent the table.
Hostels with coworking lounges, public libraries, or even a quiet spot in a park can do the trick. The key is having a go-to space that says, “This is work mode now.”
4. Don’t Schedule Yourself Into a Corner
Travel isn’t just a backdrop, it’s part of the lifestyle. Build in space to explore, nap, meander, and not constantly produce. You’re not failing if you take a long lunch or shut your laptop at 3 PM. That’s called living the dream, remember?
I like to get work out of the way in the morning so I don’t have a deadline or task hanging over my head once I head out to explore. But everyone’s different. Find what works for you, and don’t let it be wasting every day away on your laptop in a never-ending to-do list.
This is where you need to get really selective about taking meetings, too. There’s nothing worse than a meeting that could have been an email when it was scheduled at 5 p.m. local time and kept you in all afternoon (as us introverts sometimes need to do to prepare for face-time).
5. Get Really, Really Good at Asynchronous Communication
Not everything needs to happen in real time, especially when you’re crossing time zones, juggling client projects, or just need a little space to think before responding.
Tools like Loom, voice notes, and well-written async updates can make collaboration smoother, calmer, and way more thoughtful. You don’t have to smile politely on a Zoom call while trying to form a coherent response on the fly. You get time to reflect, consider, and respond with clarity.
I’ve worked with clients who much preferred working asynchronously once they saw how smooth it could be. And the more you can shift your work and client communication into asynchronous modes, the less pressure you’ll feel to be constantly available.
6. Stay Light, Digitally and Physically
Clutter (mental or otherwise) doesn’t play nice with border crossings and last-minute bus rides. That “just in case” attitude can turn into three extra chargers, twenty open tabs, and dragging a suitcase of things you could probably live without everywhere you go.
Keep your desktop and your backpack lean. Sync important files to the cloud, archive what’s done, and unsubscribe from noise. If your laptop fell in a river tomorrow (knock on wood), you should be able to log in from another device and keep going.
Same goes for your physical setup. Do you really need a second pouch of cables or that jacket you haven’t worn since Portugal? Probably not. A lean setup means fewer things to worry about, and more room in your head — and suitcase — for the stuff that matters.
7. Energy Beats Efficiency
If you’re still measuring a good workday by the number of hours you “clocked in,” it might be time to retire that mindset. Nomad life isn’t linear. Some days you’ll be dialed in and knock out a full day’s worth of deep work before lunch.
Other days you’re adjusting to a new city, battling jet lag, or mentally fried from logistics. Pushing through just to say you worked eight hours doesn’t make you productive. It makes you tired and stuck in an employee mindset.
Start planning your days based on the kind of energy you actually have, not the number of hours you think you should work. High-energy day? Tackle creative or strategic tasks. Low-energy day? Do light admin, update your site, follow up on messages, or just take the afternoon to recharge.
That’s smart resource management. You’re not a factory shift worker. You’re building something sustainable, on your own terms. Treat your energy like the asset it is.
TL;DR: You don’t have to prove anything.
Many of us who’ve chosen a different path end up feeling like we have to work twice as hard to justify it; to prove we’re not just lucky, or flaky, or chasing some sun-soaked fantasy.
But that pressure to constantly produce, stay “on”, and earn our place is a hamster wheel of demoralization. So how about we just… don’t do that.
If the pace you’re keeping feels more like survival than sovereignty, it’s okay to pause and recalibrate.
You don’t have to hustle harder to prove you belong here (wherever you are).
You already do.
✌🏻 Miranda
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