As much as we can love making art, the creative process is rarely easy. Too often, we don’t have the time and when we do, our mental exhaustion can lead us to artistic block, as discussed by Christine Nishiyama on Might Could. While there is an enormous range of potential solutions to this dilemma, one area we’ve seen gain steam recently is the adoption of remote work. It’s not for everyone, and it’s not a cure-all, but for the right person, the advantages that remote employment can generate for your artistic endeavors can be game-changing.
What Opportunities are Available with Remote Work?
Before looking at how remote work can help, we first need to consider the breadth of remote work opportunities that are out there. To this end, let’s head to a range of different websites, and see the types of remote work that could make up each of these completed pages.
For a start, let’s look at the CNBC politics page. News sites like this consist of local and international reports, each of which requires work that can be accomplished from a distance. Contributions on this front include people on the ground and writers foremost, both of which fit well with the remote working lifestyle. On a wider scale, the website would be managed by those with IT expertise, again possible without in-person access to server hardware.
We could also consider the plethora of roles involved within social media content creation, particularly for platforms such as YouTube. As we’ve covered atAffinity, media like short films on YouTube can lean heavily into aspects of remote work. From preliminary researching to filming on the go and finally editing together the content in post-production, there’s a lot that could be accomplished a planet away from a business’s physical location.
How Can Remote Work Help?
The most immediate advantage that most people would notice through the adoption of remote work would be the removal of the work commute. Depending on where you live, driving or using public transport can be a terrible experience, as we’ve talked about on Affinity before. This isn’t just about getting up earlier and arriving home later, it’s also about the financial and mental cost that commuting adds. In a monetary sense, a 2021 survey on Business Insider revealed the average American spends between $2000-$5000 on gas alone each year. Without the need for commuting, remote work can free up additional resources for your artistic pursuits.
Building on this concept is acknowledging how many of us only live where we do thanks to work. Without having to live in a cramped city apartment, a million more opportunities arise in low-cost and more inspiring environments. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in California, where the average house price reaches near $750,000 in 2022, thanks to the cost of cities like LA and San Francisco. As photographer Thomas Lang mentions in our Affinity interview, inspiration can come from everywhere, but it’s not always created equal. For those who look to nature, being outside of the city can allow a much smoother flow of ideas, and can even directly present landscapes for visual artists.
Taking this idea a step further could be the potential for working while traveling. Traveling Lifestyle has a great list of remote work opportunities that fit well with this drifting approach. Affording continual new avenues for artistic exploration, being able to wake up to a new place every week can be life-changing, affording a perspective that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. With starter kits of packs and laptops costing well under $5,000, this can be a cheap and exciting new way to explore your artistic and literal horizons.
One final bit of advice we’d give on remote work is that you should be wary about turning your artistic hobby into a full-time career. While the adage of “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” can be true for some, this approach can guarantee burnout for others. Understand that there’s going to be an adjustment period and that working remotely means setting personal boundaries, to ensure an even work/home balance, and you’ll be much better poised for success.
