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Are you ready to become a walking, working jet-setting machine? Turn that dream into reality today with these steps toward digitising yourself for work-travel. Setting up a business (versus regular) account, selecting the right VPN provider, and country-to-country registrations are just some of the many tactics for living the life of a digital nomad.
While it sounds fascinating to be a self-employed digital nomad, it comes with its fair share of challenges. To keep going when you have late-paying clients, visa expirations or laptops that crash, requires a lot of courage.
Know Your Limits
Digital nomads must learn their own limits. Life as a digital nomad demands the kind of eye-of-the-storm intensity that disappears all too easily between sidewalk cafés or bustling blocks of shops. It is equally important, then, to segregate work time from play time.
Secondly, you can’t just drop everything and become a nomad overnight. You have to plan your finances in advance. Save up. Get a travel credit card that lacks foreign transaction fees, has car rental insurance, and earns points & miles. When you are moving homes, buying flights, doing short multi-country trips, and working wherever you are, you want a card that cuts down on travel stress. And finally, research the best places for digital nomads and make your permanent move abroad only after you are certain that the country will allow you to continue working on your laptop in a comfortable environment that has good internet speeds and reliable accommodations.
Stay Organized
Digital nomads need to get good at knowing how to plan; from keeping track of dates and deadlines to finding out the best times for you to work, so you can maximise productivity but still immerse yourself fully in local culture.
Start building a portfolio of great work done remotely. When companies and clients are considering you, your online presence will help paint a picture of who you are and what you have to offer. Whether you’re considering for a potential job or looking for your next client, having an online presence is imperative in today’s global workplace. It’s not simply about having a fancy website or blog, but it is an excellent start and a great showcase for your work – an opportunity to network. It’s also wise to put aside an emergency savings account to ensure you are able to deal with the unexpected when there are unexpected challenges on the road.
Stay Healthy
In my experience, wellness is essential for the digital nomad as it is for any person travelling while working, especially since we must devote ourselves to being in good physical, mental and emotional health on a daily basis. We must be well enough to be productive and enjoy ourselves while we live fulfilling and meaningful lives visiting new places all the time.
Many digital nomads embrace the independence and work-life balance that comes with working remotely: say goodbye to micro-managing executives and stuck-in-traffic commutes, and hello to beaches and far-flung cultures!
But travel-intensive lifestyles are easy to start doing recklessly, so that they become stressful and unhealthy. Above all, work and exploration should be scheduled appropriately, so that neither gets done at the expense of the other – create a timetable that ensures you do what you have to do while you have to, then use your remaining hours every day to explore the place you find yourself in – for example, some digital nomads wake up early in the morning and work for three or four hours, then head off to walk or bike to the parts of town that you might never see just by taking a taxi.
Stay Connected
Because life as a digital nomad often means living apart from friends and family for weeks, months or years, missing birthday parties and fun hangouts can cause some strain.
It’s the key to ensuring I stay healthy as a remote worker, so rising early enough to accomplish necessary chores gives me enough time in the day to find interesting ways to explore a new town.
Good, reliable Internet is absolutely critical if you’re going to work remotely. Get a VPN so that your data is secured (I use Private Internet Access) and use Verwifi’s WiFi Speed Test app to check speeds before you book an Airbnb or coworking spot. An indispensable resource in deciding how to spend your money is a travel credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees (I use the Barclaycard Arrival Plus) and helps you earn miles or points to get free flights.
Stay Safe
Safety is the number one issue a digital nomad needs to begin thinking about, especially freelancers living the more complicated life of being a contractor in a foreign country. However, if you follow some simple precautions with the right safety protocols in place, the world need not become a dangerous place for you to travel.
Online freelancing is another great option that allows you to create your own job online. Just consider your skills and interests. You can take on a part-time customer support agent job or find a role that fits you better: like a project manager job or teaching online English classes, to name a few.
Get yourself a decent laptop and secure internet connection and set up your remote office (you can sit on the roof of the hotel you live in if that’s what floats your boat) before visiting anywhere and checking a forum such as Nomadlist to see what those specific places are like. Talk to digital nomads who’ve visited will also tell you a lot.
