Freelancer Case Study: How I Stayed Online on Slack While Travelling

Hi, I’m Alex—a freelance product manager who spent the last six weeks bouncing between time zones while trying to keep my U.S.–based clients happy on Slack. ⛱️✈️ Here’s the exact setup I used—no VPNs, no hotel‑Wi‑Fi dramas—to stay green and responsive even when I was 35,000 ft over the Pacific.

1. The Problem

• Three active Slack workspaces (agency design team, SaaS startup, and a fractional CTO gig).
• Time difference: up to 13 hours ahead of most clients.
• “Alex, you there?” messages every morning because Slack flipped me to away after 30 min.
• Lost one $2,000 mini‑project when a client thought I’d ghosted.

2. What I Needed

1. Stay online 09:00–18:00 EDT, even if it was 22:00–07:00 local time for me.
2. Switch off automatically outside those hours.
3. Log every presence change so I could prove availability if questioned.

3. The Setup in 5 Minutes

1. Install Presence Scheduler Chrome Extension.
   Install Free →
2. Authorize all three Slack workspaces.
   The app requested minimal scopes (users:read, users:write).
3. Create a single schedule: Mon–Fri, 09:00–18:00 EDT (the dashboard auto‑converted from my laptop’s local time).
4. Enable “Server fallback” so presence pings continue even when my Chromebook is closed on flights.
5. Turn on Presence History. This logs every status flip in the cloud dashboard.

4. On‑the‑Road Workflow

I did almost nothing after that:

• ☕ Morning in Chiang Mai (21:00 EST)—checked emails, then slept; Presence Scheduler kept me green overnight.
• ✈️ In‑flight (Wi‑Fi off)—extension was inactive, but the server fallback pinged Slack every 5 min.
• 🏖️ Beach day—opened hotel Wi‑Fi to answer DMs at noon EST; presence already active.

5. 30‑Day Results

6. Lessons for Other Freelancers

1. Automate presence, not performance. I still delivered the work—the tool just removed timezone optics.
2. Use schedules smartly. Clients respect boundaries if they see you flip offline exactly when you promised.
3. Keep logs. Presence history ended one billing dispute in 30 seconds.

7. Toolkit Recap

• Presence Scheduler Chrome Extension
• Pixel 8 hotspot + eSIM for backup data
• Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 (fanless, all‑day battery)
• Noise‑cancelling buds for Slack huddles

Looking for a deeper dive into the tech? See How to Keep Slack Active (Full Guide).