How to Work Remotely from Barcelona
Barcelona is always filled with colorful street festivals—what’s not to love about this beautiful city? All of the cultural celebrations, while contributing to the dream of the Catalan lifestyle, can make it a challenge to find a quiet place to work in the city. But before you decide to become a remote working hermit because your kitchen seems to be the only quiet place in the city, give me and these expert project managers a chance to convince you that you can work remotely from Barcelona outside of your kitchen.
I work remotely in digital marketing—which means I work with different eCommerce and service companies to help them find the right customers and convert them through content that keeps customers coming back. I also create viral shuffle dance videos on social media to stay current with what’s trending for GenZ.
Find the Right Space for You
One of the most important skills to have as a remote worker in Barcelona is being able to adapt to the environment around you and create your own office space. If you know that you get distracted easily, don't try and work from a busy cafe where everyone brunches on Mondays, go for a quieter area, perhaps a library, coworking space, or even a hotel where you can rent a room for a few hours. Barcelona has several public libraries, most of them close for lunch three out of the five days of the work week, but if you can find a library with a quiet cafe nearby and steady Wi-Fi, you can always work there for a few hours until the library reopens. This is my favorite option for getting marketing work done when I have to deal with campaign budgets and more quantitative data and I don't feel like paying for an office space.
Manage Your Time
Another incredibly important skill to have as a remote worker in Barcelona (or anywhere!) is being able to manage time effectively. I am lucky that most of my content creation and campaign optimization work does not require much input from other team members. If you need to interact with several team members on a daily basis, set aside two hours everyday when you are unavailable for any questions or interruptions. This is a strategy Marisol,a project manager at a large automotive company, uses to get tasks done that require uninterrupted thinking.
First Things First
Knowing how to prioritize tasks and when to switch off is also extremely important for remote workers in Barcelona, especially when there are always so many cultural events and meetups going on. Gerard, a remote worker at an international investment fund uses a three-point prioritization model that allows him to get all of his work done daily in just four hours. Adopting this strategy will make it easier to work from anywhere as you will be able to focus more easily when knowing exactly how to allocate time for each task, even if the space around you is noisy.
Three Point Prioritization Model
Create a list of all the tasks that need to be done. Add numbers next to each task ranging from zero to three to determine which tasks are most important and which tasks are not as important.
- 0 points: The task must be completed within 3 hours the same day.
- 1-2 points: The task must be completed the same day, but can take longer than 3 hours.
- 3 points: The task must be started but can be completed another day.
Finally, always allow give yourself an extra hour every day for surprise, unexpected tasks so that these last-minute “emergencies” don’t throw off your whole day.
As a remote worker, keeping on track can seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. You just need to find the right local, organize your time, prioritize your tasks and get into the zone!
You can follow Celine Douet on Instagram at @celineshuffles.