Timezones and continents

Andy flew across three time zones yesterday to get to San Francisco.

On a typical day, Andy is in Atlanta, Chelsea is in Texas, and I’m in San Francisco.

It can be a bummer waking up at 6am or 7am to a world that’s already abuzz. New York is caffeinated and the markets are about to open.

But it’s really nice at 3:30pm being able to grab a Barry’s class because your phone can go in your pocket for an hour since New York is logging off and starting Happy Hour.

At one point last year, Andy, Chelsea, and I were on three different continents — North America, Europe, and Asia, respectively. This is not recommended. It’s possible with Zoom and Industrious and iPhones, but it is definitely not recommended.

The most off the grid I got was sleeping in a yurt in the backcountry of Kyrgyzstan. No cell reception, no laptop, 10 time zones away. What should’ve been peaceful caused some mild levels of anxiety.

Bali was even weirder, though. Trying to work from Oceania, 12 time zones away from my business partner, with another teammate in Europe, was comical. 

I’d try to wake up at 5am to catch Andy before he logged off at 5pm.

I don’t know how people live the ​“tech nomad” lifestyle, at least if they have partners and coworkers and clients in double-digit timezones away.