Tips & Guides / Digital Nomads

Is Flexible Living the Key to Better Work-Life Balance?

By Erin Ollila | Jan 24, 2023
Digital nomad works from a plant-filled cafe.

Do you know how many decisions you make on an average day?

If you guessed “thousands,” you’d be correct. The more specific answer would be tens of thousands, actually, with many internet sources claiming that the average individual makes over 35,000 decisions on a given day. And Cornell research reports that over 200 of those choices simply revolve around food! But there’s one potential resolution to the ever-present decision fatigue that’s plaguing today’s workers: flexible living.

Flexible living, which is marked by its short-term rentals in new places with a lack of yearlong leases, frees people up to make fewer decisions and better enjoy their lives beyond their work, leading to a more fulfilling life unburdened by endless tasks and to-do lists.

We chatted with three Landing members to learn about how they’ve been able to achieve a better work-life balance through their flexible living journey. Here’s what they had to say:

Adding the “life” back into the work-life balance

Happy individuals make for more engaged and productive employees, and remote work has been directly linked to a boost in morale, with 2022 research from Thinking Happy, reporting that employee happiness increases by as much as 20% when they are able to work 100% remotely.

Roxanna Kroll, a remote project manager, agrees that the ability to focus more on life has helped her gain a better work-life integration.

“I’ve got to admit, when I first started living a flexible lifestyle, I was hoping to introduce a bit more ‘life’ into my work-life balance. And I did!” she says. “I feel so lucky to be trusted to venture out and get the job done. Those things can absolutely exist in harmony. It takes a little bit of juggling but is so worth it.”

When people are provided with more flexibility in both their working and living arrangements, they’re able to focus more on their lives in addition to their work.

Setting priorities in work and life

Since productivity has never been tied to a particular location or time of day, workers with flexible schedules may actually prove to be more productive if given the opportunity to set their own schedules based on their individual productive peaks and life circumstances. Compared to remote workers who may be tied to particular working hours, a fully flexible lifestyle can improve productivity and employee engagement.

The Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey supports that and found that “43% of respondents said that flexibility in working hours helped them achieve greater productivity.” And, flexible hours mean that remote workers can experience opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to them if they worked a traditional day shift.

Madison Liston Gomes, who is self-employed, has spent the past year living in multiple U.S. cities with her husband, Ivan.

“The biggest change to our balance of work and life with flexible living is that we’ve found jobs where we can create our own schedule,” she says. “Friends are sometimes shocked when we’re working on weekends, but usually it is because we took off on weekdays when things were less crowded. This has given us the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to a lot of things working a traditional nine to five would have kept us from, like huge discounts on weekday cruises from Miami, or spending an entire day waiting in line for the best picnic spot in the Boston Pops 4th of July concert!”

Prioritization isn’t simply about the ability to seek out new opportunities—a flexible lifestyle gives people the opportunity to manage the day-to-day tasks of both home and life.

“I do feel like I’m better equipped to balance my work and personal life at the same time,” says Adam Finley, a remote post producer. “Sometimes with work, there’s downtime. And that’s okay, because other times, it’s busy. I’ve learned that I deserve to put work on pause when it’s appropriate to start a load of laundry or walk the dog. This makes me work harder when the high-priority, high-impact tasks come across my desk.”

Risk-taking, but without the risk

According to 2022 Statista data, the flexibility to work from any location ranked the second-most benefit to remote work worldwide, with 62% of respondents indicating the desire to have flexible options in regard to choosing their work location.

But while the idea of flexible living may seem intriguing and even exciting, the risk involved in picking up and living in new places—and the amount of choices involved in doing so—often stops people from taking the leap.

“Our favorite part of flexible living with Landing is it takes the fear aspect out of seeking new opportunities,” says Liston Gomes. “Ivan and I really wanted to spend some time living in Miami, but a lot of our friends and family warned that they didn’t think we would like it. If this move involved signing a year-long lease, having to buy or move furniture, and setting up our own utilities, that might have been enough to convince us not to go. As a Landing member, we can move between Landings with as little as two weeks’ notice, so there was no risk, and in this case, so much reward! We absolutely love living near the beach and exploring the nearby National Parks. It was one of our favorite spots we’ve landed in yet!”

Kroll agrees, saying, “Without the massive part of the moving process that Landing takes care of, we would never travel from city to city. I cannot imagine starting from scratch each time to find a place to live, furnish, lease, credit check, tour, and move for every city. Landing’s flexible living gives us the best of both worlds. All we have to do is pick our next city and get there. It still blows my mind how easy it is and how much time it saves us. ”

Curious if flexible living is the next best step for you? Take a leap without the anxiety as a Landing member. With fully furnished apartments in over 375 cities throughout the U.S.—and flexible leases that make it easy to move on your terms—you’re safe to see whether a flexible lifestyle improves your work-life integration.

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Erin Ollila

Conversion copywriter. Copy Coach. Wing Woman. Word slinger. No matter what you call her, Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform—and even transform—its intended audience. When she’s not working with big brands and small businesses to marry strategy, storytelling, and SEO, you can find her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Erin graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and then co-founded Spry Literary Journal, which celebrates undiscovered and established writers' concise, experimental, hybrid, modern, vintage or just-plain-vulnerable writing.