Are you bored of your office life and standard working hours? Going for lunch with the same colleagues at 11.30 sounds not so enthusiastic anymore? Congrats, you might be in the initial phase of digital nomadism. Equip yourself with a decent cell phone and a battery bank, and let’s go through the steps together.
Your breakfast might become your dinner, and your Saturday might become your Monday…
It is still fun, though! Probably one of the perks of choosing digital nomadism is an ability to stay up long hours on Sunday and wake up at noon on Monday. Especially after reading your friends’ demotivation flow on social networks. However, being a digital nomad is a little more sophisticated, and just slightly less romantic in the end. You need to be aware that the motivation might come to you at weird hours. There will be periods of absolute silence and loneliness, and there’ll be periods when your breakfast will become your dinner and vice versa. Thus, you can very easily find yourself working on a Saturday morning, which you could have probably never imagined happening with a standard office job. However, it is still lots of fun!
Can going to the cinema during office hours get boring?
Most of the digital nomads have probably experienced the fun of posting a picture from a cinema theatre or a pool during regular working hours and receiving many comments from their tired friends who work from offices. Again, for anyone reading this and still considering this way of living, you must be aware, that occasional loneliness might get you unprepared, and you might find yourself vulnerable with a lack of support, especially if most of your friends have day office jobs. The fact is, your leisure will still most likely depend on your friends’ schedules. If they are tired in the evenings after a long day at work, you will not be able to change that, and it does not matter how energetic you are after sleeping until 10 am every morning. However, there is a great solution to that! Just find a hobby for yourself, or a hobby that might in ideal case later become your job: your schedule will be full, and you’ll still be able to do fun stuff during the office hours! What can potentially be better, right?
You might also consider searching for a working spot at a co-working space in the long run if you are not a full-time traveler. Again, it depends if you like the company there and the rent price suits your financial flow.
Bringing your laptop and stay connected when everyone else is having fun
Barbeque session in the forest on a beautiful day of spring, hanging out with the friends on the seaside, or kayaking trip? As a digital nomad, you must be able to commit yourself to work even when you see stunning weather, a pool and palm trees outside or at the places with no electricity at all. Remember, when I’ve mentioned a decent work phone and an energy bank? If not, go back a few steps and read about it carefully once again, to make sure digital nomadism suits your style.
In theory, you can stay connected easily when riding Uber and wandering in the weirdest locations, like a food market in the suburbs in Bangkok. Not every theory is easy to convert into practice; thus sometimes you might need to demonstrate your skills holding chopsticks and being on the phone and computer doing two different jobs at the same time. Or imagine yourself hiding from a tropical rain with all the equipment when you have a Skype meeting with 6 hours difference in 5 minutes, with no option to postpone it. Surprise surprise… the Wi-Fi connection at the café that you just came to hide from the rain sucks and you have nowhere else to go? Always think of at least a few possible options on how to stay connected in case something like that happens. If you think that it sounds both challenging and fun, you are just a few steps from becoming a digital nomad, so continue reading!
You might not have a permanent residency, especially if you’re a true digital nomad
As a digital nomad you must love the dynamic lifestyle. Otherwise, you don’t fit the description. The other side of the medal is the same, and the truth is, the income of most of the digital nomads is unstable, as well as options for accommodation. You must be aware that you might struggle to rent a place for a year or even half a year unless you have some decent savings. Landlords at specific locations (for example, Vilnius) will very unlikely rent a place for a month and especially for a fair price. Living with a bunch of friends in a bohemian 5-room apartment is another option, but everything like that has its pros and cons. However, having such initiatives as CouchSurfing can change the approach to your digital nomad life – all you need is to message the right people with the same approach!
Savings
Since your daily routine is going to be dynamic, your income will most likely be no different, at least in the beginning. It is going to be much harder to plan your expenses, and you must be able to survive a month both with 100 Euros and stay rational and keep the lion’s share for the savings when you receive 2000 Euros. You might have no clients for a few months in a row, so be prepared to spend a month in the inbox without any serious income. Always keep an eye on the good flight tickets and accommodation deals (or re-rent your place and go traveling somewhere else). Do some mathematics – that both will save money and make your life as a digital nomad full of everything that only 1% of ordinary office jobs would do. If you’re up for this challenge, welcome onboard. Sit back, relax and enjoy digital nomadism, because it is lots of fun once you get into it. As you see, it is not only about waking up late on Mondays!