Take your work away with you

At Ashore we're fervent believers that getting out of your routine, out of the city, and out into the countryside is deeply good for you in so many ways.

Imagine this scenario:

You head to one of the UK’s best towns or villages, you have a life-changingly productive week of work, you grab your coffees from a local café instead of Pret, you stroll the beach in the morning instead of a tube platform, and after work you’re free to explore the best of Britain’s not-city-life.

The award-winning Blackpool Sands. On my last visit to an Ashore, I swam here on my lunch break. True story.

Frankly, that should’ve convinced you, but if not, here are some hard examples why scheduling some work away is an easy-decision:

We know that changing your location boosts your productivity; the human brain loves novelty: new stimuli prompt your brain to create new neural pathways and mechanisms to accomplish tasks; the same area of your brain that craves novelty is also responsible for your motivation and reward-processing.

A study in Denmark showed that getting into nature stimulated creative-professionals to be more creative.

And if that’s not enough, in a survey of 1,000 Americans who took a trip away to work, well… just take a look at the results:

A full 86% of employees agreed or strongly agreed it boosted their productivity.
81% of Americans grew more creative at work afterwards.
Nearly 69% were less likely to quit.
As many as 83% agreed or strongly agreed it helped them cope with burnout.
Roughly 84% are now more satisfied with their job.

Making remote work

Right, you’re still with me - then we’re agreed, trips away for work are good.

But what about the working?

We think the Workspace is key.

The Ashore workspace, carefully considered to make you comfortable & productive.

I’ve done proper everything-in-one-backpack, working from cafés, digital-nomading around the world; I’ve paid my dues peering into an overheating laptop screen, as I struggle to hear the Zoom conversation over the squeal of the coffee-grinder, and the animated chirping of the group on the table next to me.

I’ve been in “short term rentals” (through the air-bed app), that are too cold, or too hot, or have wobbly uncomfortable chairs, or don’t have a table, AND have crap Wi-Fi (or none at all).

After a year of frustration, and a large decline in productivity, I ventured out onto the internet, with an idea in mind for a better way to remote work while you travel, and looking for like-minded people who’d identified the same problems – which is when I found Aled & Ashore, a few emails and coffees later, I jumped aboard.

We believe we’ve solved any worries about uncomfortable, fragile, and unreliable work spaces when you travel. It was simple in the end, we took every aspect of a work away experience and chose the very best options available.

Apple gear on FORBO linoleum. Choice.

Internet: All of our homes have guaranteed internet speeds, from 60mbps, through to 500mbps and beyond. If your internet goes down, or you’re staying somewhere really remote, we have Starlink satellite internet at hand.
The Monitor: Quite literally no expense spared - we have Apple Studio Displays and Curved Ultrawide monitors from Samsung and LG - fair warning: your own monitor will seem unusable in comparison.
Accessories: Apple’s keyboards, mice and trackpads are available in every home - they are compatible with Windows machines, but we also have dedicated Windows-layout keyboards should you wish.
The Chair: pièce de résistance - every workspace is replete with the industry-dominating-for-a-reason Herman Miller Aeron. Comfortable, robust, great for your back.

All you need to do is bring your laptop and charger, we take care of everything else.

Productivity awaits.

A website & app for exploring the UK

The final piece of the puzzle is how we enable you with Ashore’s technology.

We’re building beautiful and fast ways for you to find new places to visit, and to book work aways with confidence. These include:

Ashore.io

You’re on it!

We have many improvements in the works. Up first is a smart property search (think: “Homes in Kent with two Apple Displays and parking space”), and beautiful property listing pages.

Our Email

The best way of staying up to date with our newest locations and of our latest developments as a company is through the Ashore newsletter, which is delivered weekly by our CEO, Aled.

Full of travel inspiration, and recommendations from Aled's prodigious reading list, it's one of the highlights of my week. Sign up at the footer of this article, or at Ashore.io

Apps for iOS & Android

Our apps will serve two purposes:

A fast and powerful booking experience, you’ll find all your details, conversations with Ashore partners, and trip details here.
The Ashore app will become your favourite resource for exploring the best of the UK’s best towns and villages. Between our customers, the Ashore team, and our local partners, we’ve built up a library of amazing recommendations: art galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, areas of natural beauty & more. These will be available in the app even when it’s offline, for when you’re truly off the beaten track.

Smart Home Technology

This ones a little further out, but we’re looking at integrating smart locks, smart light controls, and real-time internet connection verification. You’ll be able to run a speed-test in any property before you even get there.

The end of the day for me here, and the end of this article.

I hope you're excited as we are by the prospect of remote-working remotely, and that I've encouraged you to take a working break soon.

If you want to chat further about the tech behind Ashore - I’m easily reached on jon@ashore.io, or @sherrardj on Twitter.

Otherwise, sign-up to the Newsletter if you haven’t already, and you’ll receive an e-mail with a private link to our current crop of properties.

Jon Sherrard | Co-founder & CTO

Tw: @sherrardj | Insta: @jpshez