How to Find Balance as an UBUNTU Evaluator
If you haven’t heard, UBUNTU is hiring! Until March 1st, 2024, at 11:59 pm, we are looking for two Associate Strategists, one Director of Administration and Operations, and one Communications Strategist. You would be joining a learning community of Black women, femmes, and non-binary people who work together as undisciplined strategists to disrupt systemic oppression through education, facilitation, and evaluation. And while that is important, it also means being immersed in a flexible, work-from-home environment. But with words in the workforce such as “remote,” “virtual,” and “hybrid,” where does “flexible work-from-home” fit in?
I joined UBUNTU in June 2020; therefore, I am coming up on my 4th anniversary! When I entered the organization, we were fully immersed in a pandemic. UBUNTU had gone remote like the rest of the world, and I was hired as a Project Strategist, now called the Associate Strategist, to learn what it meant to be an evaluator at UBUNTU. Since then, I have facilitated, evaluated, learned, failed, and returned to learning again. I'm still here today, now as the Director of Evaluation & Learning, and I thought I’d share what it’s like to find balance and stay organized for me at UBUNTU.
For some background, I am one of the most avid travelers in the organization. While we travel for work often as evaluation consultants, I also travel for leisure throughout the year on “workcations,” - which is a fancy term to say I work and travel simultaneously. I've been to Omaha, Silicon Valley, Boston, D.C., New Orleans, and other cities through my work at UBUNTU.. However, I have worked in Panama, Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia. And though I did do a 4-month stint around the U.S. from January to April 2022, that was cool; going abroad for months at a time doesn't work with the vibe of UBUNTU.
Sojourner working from Puerto Rico
When people see “remote” or “virtual,” they automatically think they can work from Bali on a beach. However, given our deep-rooted connectedness to Milwaukee and other communities around the country, we are not a remote-first organization. So, if that's what you're looking for, you may want to apply elsewhere. But, as someone who likes to spend a week or two abroad and then come back home to my childhood room, I've learned a lot about balancing your love of travel while maintaining the job that allows you to do so.
Therefore, if you are struggling with time management, looking for tips to find more balance, or applying to an open position and curious about what it’s like in a flexible work-from-home environment here, I got you! As the traveling evaluator herself, here are some tips I’ve used to manage my work and personal schedules to find balance as an evaluator at UBUNTU.
Prep your calendar. At the end of each Friday or on Monday morning, I take an hour to review the prior week. I look at what tasks got done, how long they generally took me ( so I could time block appropriately in step 2), and what didn’t happen that I need to push until the upcoming week. I also reviewed my project work plans to see what needs to be done in that forthcoming week.
Time block your calendar. After prepping my calendar, I dive into the calendar to time block my tasks. This is one of my best tips to manage my work calendar. Being a consultant at UBUNTU, we balance a lot of projects at once. I can lead three projects while supporting other projects. Therefore, it is crucial to block my time for each one of my tasks based on what I still need to get done the week prior and according to project work plans. I time block breaks and lunch as well.
Communicate with your team. As someone who travels a lot on the team, I constantly update my calendar’s work location. I do not need to hide where I'm going and what I'm doing. I also notify my team and change my email signature when I work in a different time zone. Good interpersonal communication makes taking those workcations much more manageable because people will know when to expect responses from you as you're working and traveling.
Maximizing your travel time. I am the queen of working on a plane! If I've gotten enough rest, I will set up my laptop and use the airplane Wi-Fi to do work while traveling for work or leisure. This is one of my favorite things to do because as I work on the plane, I can relax a bit more when I reach the hotel once I land. During this time, I may check emails, write proposals, or read one of the books on our schedule. Though I don't do this every time I travel, using your flight time can come in handy to check off items on your task list so you can relax once you arrive at your final destination.
Coordinating my workcations. When I want to do a workcation, I double-check to see when I may have to travel for UBUNTU. In the past, I tried to space out my travel and have at least a week or two between work and personal travel if I can manage it. I also fly out on a Sunday or early Monday morning (for a shorter flight) to settle by the start of my work day. Since we are asynchronous, this can vary; however, we have mandatory meeting times on the calendar. Furthermore, I pick locations that are within a reasonable time zone. I know myself to be a morning person. Therefore, being abroad somewhere, working the late shift to align with CST or EST, can take time and effort. However, countries such as Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Guatemala, are all in CST. Many other destinations are in EST, which work well with our UBUNTU calendar. Then, I plan my locations a month or two in advance and share my travel dates with the main UBUNTU calendar.
Create playlists. Whether you are traveling or not, working from home can feel like a solo endeavor sometimes. Although we have virtual spaces such as Zoom and Slack, it can feel very independent and, to some, lonely. I love creating playlists to fill the silence. I have a playlist for my more calming moments such as R&B and lo-fi music. Then there is another playlist when I need to be hyped up before a meeting that I play. And perhaps another one I use in group co-working time. I think music is a great addition to a flexible work-from-home life to liven it up a bit!
Use your remote work tools. Google Calendar, Zoom, Notion, Salesforce, and Slack are all tools we use daily at UBUNTU. Each has its own learning curve, but these are vital tools. As I travel, I also use World Time Buddy to align the time zones as necessary and Speedtest to test the wifi speed as I work remotely on the go. Many Airbnbs include the speedtest in their list to attract remote workers and boutique hostel accommodations such as Selina, which are reliable and known for having solid wifi.
Schedule activities after work. One of the fun parts about being in a role that allows for flexibility, such as workcations, is planning things to do after work. When you are in a new place and want to be a tourist but are also working, I recommend planning activities after work hours. This is the best way to get the best of both worlds. I usually pick a few evenings to take a cooking class or do something fun instead of a traditional happy hour.
Sojourner working from New Orleans
As Ebony Kirkendoll, the Director of Technical Assistance, Planning & Capacity Building at UBUNTU, says, take what's best and leave the rest! Some of these tips may resonate with you, but others may not. Yet, the best way to do it is to try a strategy for about a month to see if it works for you. Finding balance takes trial and error and is an opportunity to learn more about yourself in the workplace.
Your job is not meant to be your end-all, be-all, and putting strategies in place to figure out how to find balance can help you in the long run. I only took these types of workcations once I felt comfortable in my role at UBUNTU. It takes a few months to get the hang of a new job before planning how to work from somewhere else. Show yourself some grace and patience when you pop into a new role or embark on your workcation. If you are applying to UBUNTU, I hope to see your application soon! And if you plan on finding the balance between your work and personal life, I hope a workcation is in your future, too.
