Hey hey!
The made up word “workcation” has entered my vocabulary recently, and I’m not going to lie, it feels a little wanky every time I say it.
After reading a boatload of social media posts about groups of people heading off to lovely places and spending their time half doing holiday things and half catching up with work, like any other freelancer or business owner my first thought was “That’s just a holiday, love”.
But the more I read about it, the more it seemed to make sense.
(This is the 31/03/2026 issue of my newsletter – subscribe here)
Rather than surreptitiously shoving your laptop into your bag and shamefacedly muttering “I might have to check my emails occasionally, soz” to the family, why not own it? There are going to be times on holiday when you can’t schlep off to the beach because you need to do something for a client.
So I announced to all and sundry that this break was going to be a “workcation”, cringing as I said it, but owning the fact that at least half of it was going to be work, not sipping passionfruit martinis on a lounger as the sun set.
Of course, the fabulously organised and extremely professional people over on Instagram and Tik Tok were having their workcations in Spain, or Italy, or rather unadvisedly it transpires, Dubai.
Me? I have a 16 year old terrier cross, PeppaDog, and far flung trips are out of the question – so off we traipsed to Cornwall and Devon.
As we negotiated roads like this, I once again began to regret my life choices:
I’ve ridden bikes (motor) at 200mph, I’ve driven various cars on racetrack and drag race weekends, I’ve even been carted off at a very speedy gallop by a runaway horse once, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING terrifies me as much as some of the “roads” in the places I choose (CHOOSE!) to go on holiday.
So my dreams of arriving at my week long abode refreshed, full of ideas, and ready to knuckle down to some serious creative process were thwarted once again. I arrive stressed, anxious, and having to prize my fingernails out of the car door (did I mention I wasn’t even driving these bloody roads? I was a passenger, which somehow gave me more fear).
Thankfully once we were settled in our rather plastic “log cabin”, once I’d created a little work corner, and once I’d poured myself something very medicinal, the horrors of the drive in began to fade.
I was in nature, surrounded by trees, ready for my creative juices (🤢 ) to flow.
I know that those of you in the know about the types of places I stay are expecting tales of godawful internet, me wandering around the forest at night in the hope of getting a signal, and eventually ending up in a McDonald’s or Starbucks, thus negating the whole “cation” part of the workcation – honestly, I expected it too.
But no, so far everything has been perfect on the wi-fi front – I brought a dongle, a wi-fi booster and 2 different phones, just in case, and they have all stayed in my case.
My dreams of solitude and peace, and just the odd ping of an email or DM notification occasionally, however, were rudely destroyed when on the day we set off, Google announced the March 2026 Core Update. The fuckers.
Not because that gave me loads of work to do – my advice as always is to sit tight, ride it out, let’s look at the aftermath once it has finished – but because almost immediately people began dropping into my inbox and LinkedIn messages asking advice. So the majority of the journey was spent replying to people and trying to reassure them, which definitely helped wile away the time until we reached the roads of doom pictured above.
The inbox had quietened down enough by the time we arrived for me to actually appreciate where I was. More on the Core Update and what it all means once the dust has settled – that’s a newsletter for another day.
So, the “workcation” plan. Quiet mornings, me and my laptop, PeppaDog snoring in the corner, the gentle sounds of nature outside. Proper focused work time, with the odd woodland walk to clear the head. I was ready.
I was also unbelievably naïve.
The first morning I woke naturally before my alarm, laying in the dark feeling quite smug about the whole workcation concept.
Then 6am hit.
I don’t know how many rooks it takes to constitute a rookery, but whatever the number is, every single one of them was in the trees directly above the cabin, and they all had opinions. Loud ones. Simultaneously.
PeppaDog, who barks at foxes, squirrels, the postman, and occasionally thin air, slept through the entire thing without so much as an ear twitch.
Have you ever heard 50+ rooks all shouting at the same time? It’s an experience only akin to trying to navigate 500 GEO wankers on LinkedIn every day. Not conducive to rest and relaxation.
Overall though, so far, the work/life split is going well. Sometimes a change of office address is just what the soul needs.
More on my half work/half holiday next week, no doubt.
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Worth your time this week
If you’re not surrounded by the noisiest birds on earth, here are some things you might like this week. One read, one listen, one subscribe.
Read: I’m reading Careless People by ex Facebook (Meta) employee Sarah Wynn-Williams – it’s a fascinating read about the power that nerd extraordinaire Mark Zuckerberg developed, and Sarah’s journey from naïve hopeful to ‘richer than most people, but still a little woman in the workplace’ disappointment, The Guardian has a review here.
Listen: I had grand plans to catch up on podcasts during this workcation. Turns out a rookery at 6am doesn’t really lend itself to quiet listening. Anyway – episode 19 of SEO F**king What is about website structure, the bit most small businesses completely ignore while obsessing over their keywords. If your pages feel disconnected and your best content isn’t ranking, this is probably why. Go and have a listen
Subscribe: If you have a B2B website that isn’t bringing in clients, Diana Lotti’s free 7-Day Website Jumpstart walks you through the SEO basics and website copy, one email a day, at your own pace. By the end you’ll know exactly where your website stands and what needs fixing. Sign up here.
That’s it for this week – now go and do something that isn’t work. I would, but apparently I’ve booked myself a workcation in a rook sanctuary, so…
Always non-wanky,
Nx
P.S. If you’re interested in the July cohort of Ascend SEO Mentoring for Copywriters, drop me a line, I’ll be talking about the application process when I get back.
