At the time of writing this, we’re in the throes of the Coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people have been sent to work from home. Several are asking themselves if they could continue working from home forever. The brave few are wondering if they can take it to the next level: working from anywhere forever. In other words, people are considering becoming a digital nomad more than ever before.
While ‘digital nomad’ might conjure up images of millennials working on beaches, there’s so much more to it than that. The good news is, there’s no one cookie-cutter answer to ‘how to be a digital nomad’. However, I’d argue that there are a few keys to digital nomad success that people should know about before deciding to leave the 9 to 5 life in pursuit of eternal working holidays.
What is a Digital Nomad?
In short, a digital nomad is a remote worker. If you work from home, in theory, you’re a digital nomad already. However, more people would add on that digital nomads also travel while working.
How much do they travel, exactly? As much or as little as they want.
On one end of the spectrum, a digital nomad might be a parent that travels with their family and works as they travel. On the other, it might be someone that sleeps in a different bed every week, traveling to new, exotic places as often as they can.
More often, a digital nomad is someone that works full time and stays in places for a few weeks to a few months at a time.
Point being – anyone can be a digital nomad any way they want. It’s just important to know why you want to be one, and to do it in a way that works for you.
After I became a digital nomad, I spent a ton of time hiking, road tripping, and with my family
Why I became a digital nomad
When I was in college, I was recommended a book called the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. The book changed the way I thought about a lot of things, including how I envisioned my future of work. I had spent the summer after my freshman year living and working abroad, so I knew that was possible. However, the 4-Hour Workweek led me to realize ‘work’ didn’t have to be in a single place.
To be clear, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did know what lifestyle I wanted to have.
Read that again. I had figured out (a lot earlier than most) that my happiness wasn’t going to be found in a cubicle. My idea of working was not college –> work –> retire. Instead, I wanted to enjoy my entire life, and take short ‘retirements’ at my discretion.
I didn’t want to retire in the sense that I stopped working until I ran out of money. Instead, I decided that I wanted to work to live, and that my lifestyle was going to change and flow with me. My plan was to read often, work as much as I needed to, and chase ideas.
The good news is, that’s exactly what I’m doing now. It took me five years and finally making the jump to becoming a digital nomad, but I got here. At least I didn’t wait until I was 65.
A lot of my fun days are punctuated with work stuff. It’s all about balance.
5 keys to successfully becoming a digital nomad
Okay, so, how does one become a digital nomad? That’s easy. You take your computer and go somewhere. You continue to work and live wherever you want.
Like almost anything, there are good ways, bad ways, and better ways to do things. After meeting thousands of digital nomads in the past several years, here are a few things that I find the successful ones have in common:
1. Know why you’re becoming a digital nomad
The first key to a successful location independent lifestyle is getting your mind right. You should have a keen understanding of why you’re choosing this life. It’s nontraditional, and everyone thinks about going home and doing the easy thing occasionally, so it’s vital that you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.
If you value freedom, want to travel more, or simply want to live more cheaply than in the U.S., then you might already have reasons to become a digital nomad.
On the flip side, if you enjoy the creature comforts of home and have never traveled to a place and thought, “Man, I wish I could just… live here”, then you might need to dig in to your ‘why’ a little bit more. Same goes for if you simply hate your office.
Your reason doesn’t matter as much as your conviction behind it. If you are truly interested in living a location independent lifestyle while earning enough to sustain it, then give it a shot. The worst thing that happens is you can go home and reset.
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2. Prepare for the emotional roller coaster
Depending on where you go, how long you stay there, the people you surround yourself with, and the work you do, becoming a digital nomad can take a huge emotional toll on you.
One day, you might be in LOVE with Rome. You don’t think you can ever get enough aperitivo and basilicas. Then, one day, you suddenly will realize how loud it is. You’ll get annoyed with people being so touchy with each other, and start looking for a way out.
Sometimes, digital nomads take on a new career when they hit the road. Many people have a sudden, crushing realization that they hate teaching English online or finding their own clients.
What I’m saying is, one bad shower can leave you really missing home. So, prepare for the ups and downs.
Bring a few comforts of home with you. Mine is my memory foam pillow and several bags of microwave popcorn. There’s nothing some snacks and a good night’s sleep can’t fix.
3. Ride the global economy
This is a major key to location independent success.
“Earn dollars. Live on pesos. Compensate in rupees.”
Tim Ferriss
When you take on a digital nomad lifestyle, you put yourself in a unique position to earn as much as you did in the states but experience twice the lifestyle. Hear me out:
Let’s say that I still lived in Dallas. In a shared apartment, I spent $1k a month on rent, $100 on utilities, $70 a week on groceries, $100 a month on car insurance, $40 a month on gas, and $400 a month dining out. Not including other little things, like going to sports games, ubers, and more, I easily spent about $3000 – $3500 a month.
Now, let’s consider another major city that expats love: Kuala Lumpur. I could live alone in a luxurious downtown apartment for $500 a month (comes with utilities and regular cleaning, too!). I’d spend about $30 a week on groceries, and maybe $200 a month dining out. I wouldn’t have a car, so ubers everywhere might cost a little more. Getting a car to the beach for the day costs about $40 per person. My life there would only cost about $2,000 a month if I wasn’t being frugal.
At my place in Morocco, breakfasts were prepared for me each day along with the other people living in my building.
These examples would be similar in other nomad hotspots including Playa del Carmen, Mexico; Tbilisi, Georgia; and in Bali, Indonesia.
Therefore, permitting that I earn the same amount in the U.S. as abroad, not only could I invest my extra money, I could choose to work less, therefore enjoying the places I’m visiting even more.
Riding the global economy means earning money in dollars, while living on cents.
A note on retirement and the global economy:
Being a digital nomad doesn’t mean you can’t afford to live in the U.S. Instead, it means that you’re choosing to live wehrever makes you happy. It’s still smart to invest for retirement.
A lot of people choose to retire outside of the U.S. However, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to retire abroad. It’s worth considering a nomadic lifestyle, even in retirement.
4. Follow technology
Before becoming a digital nomad, I would seek out vacation spots that were off the grid. I’d use my PTO to go off into the mountains of Guatemala and not use my phone for a week. I got away from my work by getting away from technology. However, it’s a little bit different as a digital nomad.
Digital nomads don’t work from anywhere. They work from anywhere that has good WiFi.
Places like Asia and Southeast Asia are known for having some of the most advanced technology in the world. Not only that, but access to 4G internet and data plans are cheap.
If you’re just starting out, be sure to make sure that wherever you decide to go has strong WiFi. You can find this information by searching digital nomad forums on Reddit, looking on nomadlist.com, and searching for digital nomad blogs.
Work from Wi-Fi
5. Know when to stop working
This is a key to success for any remote worker, but especially for digital nomads.
Imagine going to your dream location. For the sake of imagination, let’s say it’s Bali. You arrive, set up shop, and get your backlog of work done from traveling. Then, you spend the next several days getting ahead on work. A new project pops up, and suddenly, you’re spending 10 hours a day in your room on the computer. NOT ideal.
As a remote worker, you have to know when to call it a day. Give yourself time or productivity limits, and stick to them. There’s no point in choosing a lifestyle for yourself and not following through on it.
Read Next:
The keys to success for becoming a digital nomad are simple. Like anything else you do, you should root yourself in a purpose. Then, take practical steps toward finding places that you love to be and things you love to do.
If you’re interested in learning more about the digital nomad lifestyle, check these articles out:
Many of us were recently thrown into the teleworking world, some for the first time. It wasn’t easy for people to figure out how to do it, and how to stay productive while working from home. While everyone’s experience with staying productive while telecommuting is different, there are three things that have been super helpful for me.
Telecommuting was awesome for me… until it wasn’t.
I started teleworking, or working remotely, about two years ago. My former company started a policy that allowed us to work from home one day per week, and I jumped on the opportunity. I used the day to get my work done more efficiently as well as get some things done around the house.
As weeks went on, I started to play with my work from home days a little bit more. I spent mornings getting work done in a local coffee shop and took calls in the afternoons. Some days, I’d go work from a friend’s place.
Then, after I quit my job and went out on my own, I was suddenly working from wherever there was WiFi without ANY sort of accountability. I began sleeping in, working until all hours, and sometimes getting on my computer while still in bed. I lost any sense of structure to my days.
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Top 3 ways to be productive while telecommuting
I realized early on that I needed to give my days some structure. Here are my top tips for people who want to be more productive while telecommuting:
1. Create a morning routine
Yes, I said it. Sticking to a morning routine is KEY to being productive while teleworking.
Whether you adhere to a miracle morning or simply commit to an alarm clock and simple morning routine, find something that works for you. It’s ok to start small.
I started by simply committing to drinking a full glass of water before 8:30 every day, no matter what. Then, I added 5 sun salutations before 8:30. Then, I bumped it up to 8 am. It goes on, but now I have a morning routine that has me in to ‘work mode’ by 9 every day.
2. Prioritize your day
Not only do successful work-from-homers prioritize their days, but they do it the day before. Let me give you an example.
My to-do lists are often scattered and have things added to them throughout the day. It leaves me feeling overwhelmed at the end of the day rather than accomplished. To combat this feeling, I rewrite my to-do list at the end of each day.
Before rewriting my list, I sort out what the most important things are. Then, I rewrite my list for the following day with the most important activities at the top of the list. Then, I make sure I have what I need to get the top 3 done the next day.
When I know the day before that I am set up for success the following day, I can rest easy and walk away from my work.
Working from Vedauvoo National Forest
3. Start the Pomodoro Technique
In short, the Pomodoro Technique is short work sprints followed by even shorter breaks. The work sprints are strict: no distractions, no exceptions. There are plenty of Google Chrome plugins that help with this, or you can simply set a timer.
I’m weak when it comes to my phone, so using a phone as a timer is no bueno for me. I use the Marinara plugin on Chrome and set a timer for 25 & 5 minutes. I work for 25 minutes, then get up and do something else for 5.
When I’ve prioritized my day, I simply start with the most important thing first and set 1-3 sprints aside to finish it. For example, I know that if I need to write an article today, I’ll set aside one sprint to write it and the second to refine it.
I pair the Pomodoro Technique with the Pareto Principle and Parkinson’s Law. They’re better explained here, but they essentially say that if you have a set time to get something done, you’ll get it done.
Further reading on being productive and telecommuting:
Here’s something I’ve noticed: So many people, especially women, behave as if they can’t do something if they aren’t doing it with someone. While desiring companionship is wonderful, it also creates a sense of fear when it comes to traveling alone.
Hitch Hiking, but not alone.
Solo traveling does NOT mean you’re alone.
Solo traveling, or independent traveling, just means that you’re in control of your time. Here is what I propose:
Reframe How You Think About Being Alone
In our culture, loneliness seems to have ties to self-worth. When we feel really isolated, we seem to think that we’re less-than. We get all wrapped up inside of our heads thinking that because we’re alone, nobody wants to be with us. Loneliness makes us feel undesirable.
I’m writing this during Corona, and I can see loneliness changing people. We are being left to feel our grief and anxiety and confusion alone in our living rooms. We feel alone in the world, so we reach out to technology to connect us. We Zoom to talk about our feelings, and we feel validated by group messages.
When I say ‘our culture’ I mean you. I mean the folks who turn to the internet for conversation. It’s not a bad thing. It just means that we’re all out here, feeling connected all of the time. It helps us to combat our loneliness.
Then the question becomes, even if we’re alone, are we really, you know, alone?
I traveled solo to Sweden, but met super cool people on a Couchsurfing tour. I wasn’t lonely OR alone.
There is a difference between solitude, loneliness, and being alone.
It can be super difficult to be alone. Heck, even I’m guilty of taking my phone into the bathroom with me. Why do I need to be connected in the bathroom?
I don’t, but I am.
I encourage you to play with solitude.
Get to know yourself by being alone. Even sit in loneliness for a while. It might not be hard during Corona, but it might also be super hard since we’re now more attached to our phones than ever before.
You can become stronger through loneliness.
And, here’s the thing. When it comes to traveling solo, I rarely feel lonely. In fact, I’m rarely alone.
Not only that but the more that I’m alone, the more I come into myself; I find my center. I become friends with my solitude. We’re tight. We challenge each other. Together, my solitude, my independence, my fears, my travels, and I become stronger. We move each other forward.
Take that a step further: When was the last time you were happy alone? Do you know how to be happy alone?
These musings are the number one reason why people tell me they don’t want to travel solo: They’re afraid of being lonely.
As we settle into different levels of self-isolation, this question might be easier to answer than ever before. However, that’s not what I’m asking.
I want you to identify when you were not just without people, but not reachable. A time when you’ve stopped any sort of one or two-way communication with the outside world: no scrolling on facebook, no ability for someone to reach into your mental space.
Maybe your phone was off in another room and you were reading. Perhaps all you did was leave your phone in the living room while you went to the bathroom.
Was it in the last week? Longer? Were you happy?
Why People Don’t Travel Solo
When people tell me that they couldn’t travel alone, they typically give me one of three objections: They don’t know where to start the solo travel process, they don’t know how to plan a trip, and they think that they don’t want to be lonely.
If you’ve been reading my other writing for a while, you’ve probably learned that I don’t spend a lot of time alone despite traveling solo. To combat being alone, I :
Stay in hostels so I can be social with other guests
Take group tours or join classes to meet people
When solo in northern Israel, I met this girl. She and a friend were out taking photos, and they kind of borrowed me and decided I was their friend for the hour.
You Don’t Have to Learn Before You Go
Solo travel is something that I don’t think I learned to do intentionally. I did it a lot before I realized I’d done it.
I remember telling a friend a couple of years ago that I was planning my first solo travel experience. She looked at me baffled. In fact, she told me I’d been doing it for years. “Sure,” I said, “But I mean like really going somewhere on my own”.
A Couple of Quick Stories
Let me tell you about the times I didn’t realize I’d solo traveled.
After freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to teach English in France for the summer. I went not knowing anyone, but knew that I’d be with a bunch of like-minded English speakers all summer.
I went on study abroad to Cyprus as the only person from my university. I didn’t know anyone on the program, but I knew there were 70 other people who would only be in Cyprus for a semester, so we’d probably become friends.
I went to Israel and Palestine for two weeks knowing that some friends’ families would help me out when I was there. I had people to lean on, so I didn’t see it as going solo.
In Hong Kong, I traveled solo but Couch Surfed. A stranger became my saving grace while there. Story here
How to be happy alone:
As in non-traveling life, making friends is weird. However, it’s typically easier when traveling if you play your cards right.
In this video, I outline how to make friends while traveling. The internet is riddled with blogs and tips, but here’s the thing: when you’re traveling, you have more in common with the person next to you than not.
Think about it. The person next to you has likely come from a similar place, and something similar drew them there. They’re also away from home and likely looking for someone to share the joy of traveling with. A simple comment on their travel gear can kick off a day of camaraderie or at least some interesting stories.
I know I’m oversimplifying it. I’m basically saying, “Well, then just don’t be alone!”. It’s not that easy. However, if you go out of your way to meet people, you will. Here are a few ideas:
Stay in group housing such as hostels. Many have single rooms but common areas full of people looking to meet others, and some even host events for guests to do things together.
Go on group tours. This can be 7-day tours or activities for a few hours in the afternoon at your destination.
Hang out in tourist areas. It’s ok to read a book in the park or stay at a restaurant a little longer.
Use technology. Apps like meetup.com and Couchsurfing have meetups of all kinds all around the globe.
“Alone” On a beach in Morocco
How Alone Do You Want To Be?
This is a real question. I have friends who go off on ‘think weeks’. They lock themselves up somewhere far from society and turn their phones and TV’s off and are intentional about their thoughts and actions.
Other friends go on cruises for singles in hopes of spending lots of time with other people. This is their idea of being alone.
Other friends show up to motorcycle rides alone in hopes of making future biking friends.
Here’s the truth nugget: If you want to meet lots of people but go lock yourself in a cabin in the woods, you’re going to have an awful solo trip. If you want to meet lots of people but stay at a hostel near the woods or a campground with lots of community activities, you might have the best ever solo trip. It’s up to you.
It really comes down to effort and mindset. So, let’s talk about mindset.
A lot of people come to me and ask how I quit my job to travel. Even more come to me asking how they can travel as much as I do. Here’s what I have to say to the ‘quit your job, see the world’ types: Just because I did, doesn’t mean I want you to quit your job to travel. In fact, don’t.
You may daydream about walking out of your office for the last time or spending countless leisurely days on beaches in places you can’t pronounce. We all do, it’s called retirement.
However, retirement on its own is completely unfulfilling, and you don’t have to quit your job to achieve your travel goals.
If I don’t want you to quit your job to travel, what DO I want? I want a world full of inspired, educated people. People like you, who can find a balance between and experiencing the world firsthand.
My first ‘I just quit my job’ beer!
I’m going to cover a few things in this post:
Why I Quit My Job to Travel Full-Time
Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job
What You SHOULD Do Instead
Why I Quit My Job to Travel Full-Time
I’ve known since college that I didn’t want to spend time in corporate America. In fact, I even knew that I wanted to visit every country and slow travel long-term. I just didn’t know how to avoid the corporate world while being responsible about my finances.
With that in mind, I finished school and got a job. I put myself on a weird, intense budget so that I could pay off my debt and start saving as quickly as possible. In fact, I paid off $55k+ of debt in 3 years – and visited 20 countries in that time (read about the budget/debt/travel here)!
After some time in the traditional workforce, I began to create my exit strategy. Well, I tried to be strategic. However, quitting came as more of an entrepreneurial seizure than a tactical move, but that’s a different story.
My point is – I always knew I’d be an entrepreneur and long-term traveler. I knew my travel goals and knew that I had to quit working for others to truly be myself. If your travel goals aren’t the same as mine, that’s ok. You may not have to quit your job to travel the way that you want to.
Working from a national park via a 4G Hotspot
Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job
Honestly, I can’t think of a single reason.
That’s because YOU have to.
If you want to travel long-term
If you want to take some extended time to travel while keeping your job (or a job), I have a few ideas for you:
Take a sabbatical
Take a leave of absence
Get a new job and push out your start date so you have time to travel in-between (I did this between my first and second job and it was great!)
Take a job in education abroad so you can spend your summers & breaks seeing a new part of the world
See if your current job will let you go remote
If you do feel that you should quit your job to travel, let me be the first to tell you: it isn’t all rainbows and beaches.
Traveling, especially as an entrepreneur, is stressful. Your next paycheck might be iffy. You might learn that you hate working outdoors. Perhaps you learn that moving around is exhausting for you.
The bottom line is, don’t quit your job to travel if you don’t have a fallback. Being broke and stuck halfway around the world isn’t glamorous, it’s gross.
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What You Should Do Instead
Okay, so maybe I haven’t painted a beautiful picture of traveling. But I want you to be serious about WHY you’re traveling. Not only that, but if you want to quit your job, you probably have some stuff to work out. It’s ok, we all do.
I just want to be crystal clear that just because I quit my job to travel, and just because I teach people how to travel well,does not mean that I only want people to travel exactly how I do.
So, consider the following:
Think about what you want to do, not where you want to go. Can you accomplish that in your allotted PTO?
What is your purpose for traveling?
Do you have a purpose in life beyond your job? A surprising amount of people quit and then just start drinking around the world until they run out of money
Consider your values. Do you need to quit your job to live a life better aligned with who you are?
If you simply want to travel more – do it. There’s an avenue for you. If you hate your job – figure out a different place to work. If you want to quit your job and travel the world – figure out a way to do that, too! But don’t do it because everyone else is.
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Don’t Quit Your Job To Travel
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the COVID-19, or the Coronavirus is causing global panic. Whether or not you travel, there are a few things that I’d like you to hear, and I’ll share my experience as well.
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Here is my uncensored, one-sided, Corona-related conversation:
COVID-19 is not a racial issue. Please stop sending me ‘lol Chinese people’ memes. It’s Sinophobic (racism against Chinese people and their culture). You can read this post’s caption by another blogger for more information on Sinophobia and why nobody should tolerate the racism the virus is drumming up.
Please stop sharing Italian jokes with each other. See the above bullet.
Please stop making Corona jokes every time someone coughs. It’s not clever. Making cough jokes is not funny to those where a cough could be life-threatening.
Please check in on your immunocompromised friends. Lupus, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Type-1 Diabetes are some of the most popular diseases that weaken immune systems. It’s probably super stressful for these folks, so see how they’re doing. Maybe bring them some girl scout cookies. Everyone loves girl scout cookies.
Please wash your hands.
Please do not buy up every mask and soap that you can find. Other people need soap and TP and bread, too.
A friendly reminder to also put lotion on your hands. They’ll get really dry from all that washing.
Please stop using all of these single-use plastics in the name of safety. I’ve seen single-use communion containers on IG, plastic being used to ship masks to everyone and their mom… just like… wash your stuff. I’m not a doctor, but maybe don’t shake hands with everyone or watch church on TV this week?
Please keep living your life. Just be better about being clean, and nicer to people and the environment.
Oh also, I’m not a doctor. If everyone else gets to get hot and bothered and pretend to be internet experts about COVID-19, then that’s my peace.
If you’re still reading, then you probably want me to get to the part where I tell you how my life and plans have been impacted by Coronavirus. Here you go:
Seeking Sunsets in Taghazout, Morocco
My COVID-19 Travel Experience (Or Lack Of)
I was planning to spend March in Italy. I was going to fly down on the 8th, go to a conference in Sicily, and take a few sponsored tours. Then, the plan was to go to Malta for a few days. The rest of the month was going to be spent exploring Rome, Florence, and Bologna with my aunt.
As it became increasingly clear that Italy was (1.) testing a lot of people (2.) getting back a lot of positive tests and (3.) beginning large-scale quarantines, I started to rethink my travels.
Wait, that sounds selfish. Let me also note that immunocompromised people can get sick from coming in to contact with carriers who may never show symptoms. Therefore, widespread, unnecessary travel is probably not all that moral at the moment.
I’ll also say that yes, it has the same symptoms as the common flu. So maybe widespread, unnecessary travel is always immoral if that’s the case. Again, I’m not a doctor. I’m just trying to do the right thing.
So, even if this is all hype and we’re freaking out over a flu strain, I had to face the fact that Italy was getting shut down. My conference was canceled, my family canceled their trips, and I was left to decide if I should go to Italy or not.
I chose not to travel, because politics.
I didn’t want to get stuck in Italy
Quarantine doesn’t sound like fun, and who knows what the future of traveling out of Italy will look like
I don’t want to add stamps to my passport that could cause me issues in the future
Where I Stand Now
Right now, I’m staying in Germany. I’m going to wait a couple of weeks before making plans. I’ll get a boatload of work done that I wouldn’t have if I’d traveled all month. I also won’t have a bunch of Italy content, but oh well.
I’ve joined a gym, signed up for a bunch of free events on Facebook, and am trying to do things that will allow me to meet people.
My hope is that I’ll be able to spend some time in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan this spring. My main priority right now is simply to wait before making future travel plans. The worst-case scenario is I’ll stay in the Schengen Zone until my visa runs up. Then, I’d head back to the states in late May. Not a bad worst-case, huh?
Thoughts?
I’ve turned the comments off on this post because (again) I’m not a doctor, and I’ve said some bold things. I’d much rather have a conversation via email than an agitated comments section. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can talk!
