The Journey Begins!
All of your bags are packed, your remote work status is approved. You bought your plane ticket or packed up your van, and you are ready to work from anywhere while you travel the world as a digital nomad! Your lifestyle is about to become so glamorous. You just can not wait to live out your dream of remote work and travel!
We can not wait for you to live your digital nomad dream either. But first, a few tips to make sure that your life on the road is a success because we want your digital nomad lifestyle to be sustainable for you and your career!
We want to make sure you have more eye-opening experiences than stress about wifi. Read on to discover our best tips for how to work from the road. These tips will help you to make sure you are ready for the remote work life you have been dreaming about.
Work First, Travel Second
This may seem counter-intuitive since your whole goal was to have more time to travel the world and have a better work-life balance, but this is the reality we want you to be aware of in order to be a successful online entrepreneur. You are making a big life change by taking your work on the road as a digital nomad. You are doing something outside of the conventional lifestyle and outside of the norm for a working professional. This means that the beautiful distractions of all of the wonders of the world could be right at your doorstep, so you will have to make a conscious effort to put work first.
For example, if you have a Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 work schedule you need to make sure you are ready and available to work those days. This way you can spend the weekends hiking Angels Landing in Zion and you do not have to worry about falling being at work. This is especially important for freelancers or entrepreneurs since you only get out what you put in.
Please, please do not forget that just because you are traveling the world, this does not mean that you are on vacation. Your job and your income are how you are able to live this lifestyle. They are your lifeline so put them first. If you were to lose your source of income while traveling you would ultimately have to pack up and go home with your digital nomad dreams crushed and we do not want that for you!
Just because we are saying you should put work first does not mean that the lifestyle still won’t be amazing and full of travel fun! There are so many one or two-day trips you can do all over the world while you work. The best part of that is you do not have to worry about the 16-hour plane ride since you are already there! For example, going to see Dracula’s castle in Romania is a weekend day trip when you are working and living in Brasov!
Create Your Work Routine
You do not want to start your digital nomad journey at the same time that you start a new job or career. That would be a no-no.
The reason for this is that traveling 24/7 has a lot of variables that come with it. Trying to find a place to work, trying to find reliable wifi, needing certain settings for video chats, etc. And starting a new job also has a lot of variables that come with it. You might need to understand new rules and regulations or you might have new and different tasks and responsibilities. You would not want to try to combat both of these new ventures at the same time. This could lead to stress and ultimately burnout.
Work can be stressful and there will inevitably be times where travel is stressful too, trust me, so you want to mitigate these stressors as best you can. The best way to do that is to understand everything you can about your source of income. Get comfortable in your job first, know your daily and weekly routines, and then hit the road!
This tip applies to any type of work and travel, whether you are planning to roam around the U.S. in a van or travel the world with your laptop. Make sure you know the job you will be doing, how much time you will need a week to do your job, and understand all the tasks, rules, and responsibilities of that job before you take your lifestyle nomadic.
Be Organized & Plan Ahead
Life on the road throws curveballs at you all the time. That is why it is extra important to have your days planned out and remained organized. Be sure to stay organized with your work schedule and plan as far in advance as you can. Plan for calls, meetings, and deadlines in accordance with travel days, trips, and excursions.
Be sure to plan for travel days and leave a buffer in case anything goes wrong during your travels. For example, although we worked U.S. hours while traveling in Europe we still only flew on the weekends. This way we avoided the possibility of a travel delay interrupting a work call or an important meeting.
If you are naturally not a very organized and prepared person the digital nomad life may not be for you. But if you feel very strongly about it we suggest starting to practice how you can be more organized now! Practice one new organization skill a week until you feel comfortable with those skills.
You will want to think all of this through before you start your epic life adventure. You want to make sure you have time for work and travel and staying organized will help you do this.
Wifi, Wifi & More Wifi
This will likely be the most important element to your digital nomad life, it is for us. Not all wifi is created equal and different parts of the world have very different internet speeds. If traveling internationally while working you can check internet speeds by country on Open Signal or Speedtest.net.
We generally try not to stay too long anywhere that has a lower than 20 mobile download speed. But that is just a general rule of thumb and does not mean you shouldn’t completely rule a country or region out altogether. It just means you have to be more diligent about checking the internet speed at the place you are staying at or possibly offering to pay for an upgrade
Tip: We always ask the host or hotel owner to send a speed test of the wifi before booking our stays. We also confirm with them that they are willing to upgrade if it is not fast enough.
If using Airbnb make sure to do this all within the messaging platform. That way if there are any issues with the once upon arrival and you need to involve Airbnb support they can see that wifi was the most important factor of your stay and that the host was aware of this.
We also, always like to make sure the place we are staying at is not too far from a co-working space. This is important because if your wifi goes out co-working spaces generally have backup generators and you will be able to get on the internet there!
For example, Colombia has an 18 Mbps mobile download speed, but we stayed in Medellin for a month without any wifi issues. Since we knew the general internet speed in Colombia we had to do our homework on where we would stay. As a precaution, we had asked our Airbnb host to do a speed test and post the screenshot to the listing. Luckily, our building had very fast internet and we were in the city. This means we had a great working environment and access to a lot of co-working spaces!
Plan B
Since you are planning to work and travel from places that are more or less unfamiliar to you should have a Plan B or a backup plan. Since you will probably be out of your element there are more chances that something could go wrong, so you just want to be prepared.
We always travel with extra chargers, backup battery packs, and portable Wi-Fi. We also try not to keep all of this gear in the same place in case one of our packs is lost, stolen, or damaged. A solar-powered portable charger is a great idea too!
Our favorite portable wifi is Verizon Jetpack MiFi 8800L. It might not be the cheapest option but it is the most reliable in my opinion. Verizon has been the most reliable network for us when we are traveling both in the United States and internationally.
If there is a downpour in Naxos and your charger gets ruined, you will not be S.O.L. if you have an extra charger in your dry pack. Or if the wifi goes out during road construction in Costa Rica you will not be stuck in the middle of a trade unable to get out because you have the portable wifi device that you can easily switch to.
Think About Your Timezones
Seems obvious, but this one definitely got the better of us when we first started out. Since you will be moving around as you work remotely your time might change compared to your co-workers or clients. Stay on top of this. You do not want to miss a meeting you originally scheduled while you were in North Carolina because you are now in Oregon, 3 hours ahead!
Also, if you are in France and your team is in California try not to send emails too early. It might be 1 PM your time, but it is 4 AM their time. If you have to get the email out, schedule send instead.
Our best tips are to pick a one-time zone and stick with it. Always conduct business as if you were in that time zone i.e. when planning calls, deadlines, or meetings. No matter where we are in the world we operate in Central Standard Time. We know that the burden is on us to have the time difference figured out on our end.
One more tip is to take note of seasonal time changes as well. If you’re from the U.S. then you are probably familiar with daylight savings time. But, did you know that less than 40% of countries in the world actually follow this practice? Fun fact, Phoenix and Honolulu do not practice daylight savings times either!
Luckily, we have clocks and digital calendars that change automatically and smart devices with world clocks to help us out. We have also found this site useful for timezone changes as well as daylight savings times by region and country. Always think about this when you move to a new location.
Be Courteous
You always want to be courteous of your employer, co-workers, or clients. Be as open and honest with your peers as you can be. But at the same time do not unnecessarily flaunt your exotic travel lifestyle.
By this, we do not mean, don’t talk about it at all, but know that there is a time and place for those conversations. For example, virtual happy hours are a great place for these conversations. Taking up the first 15 minutes of a half-hour team meeting to talk about your current view of the Mediterranean sea is not a good setting for those conversations.
We like to avoid interrupting work meetings at all costs and try to avoid the “Where are you?” and “What is that in your background?” questions that can come up during video meetings. We do this by using a virtual background.
Before you set out on your trip, take a picture of your office background and upload it to the video conferencing platform you use. This background should now be your default background on all your calls. This way no one is curious about the palm trees in your background and you can focus on work and the reason for the meeting instead.
Know the time and place to talk about your travels. Most importantly don’t take up your co-workers’ valuable meeting or work time to boast about it. We are obsessed with travel and would love to talk about it with you all day long but some people, sadly, don’t. Try to be courteous and respectful of this as best you can.
Practice Makes Perfect!
You will want to practice living on the road before you actually begin life on the road. Before you go, make sure you have your daily routine down.
For example, if you will be using portable wifi while on the road, practice using it at home first. At home things are more familiar to you and problem-solving will be is easier. Get off of the wifi at your house and use your MiFi for a week. Practice going to coffee shops around your neighborhood or even in your car or camper van.
If it takes some time to pack, unpack and set up your workstation then practice it at home first. This goes for packing all of your clothes, toiletries, and other electronics as well. Check out our travel packing hacks here.
Practicing will help you to identify and resolve any issues, that you might not have otherwise caught, ahead of time.
The digital nomad life awaits you…
Hopefully, these tips help you prepare for your life as a digital nomad! There will always be something you can not prepare for while working and traveling the world, but this list will help you to avoid a lot of simple mistakes many new nomads make. We want to help set you up for success in your exciting, remote life!
