Hitting the Road as a Digital Nomad
How to travel as a full-time virtual worker
You finally landed a remote job that gives you the freedom to travel. You are living the nomadic dream!
Working as a digital nomad is fun, but you won’t be successful without planning ahead. Your first time away from home as a digital nomad may come with unexpected challenges. The creature comforts you are accustomed to at home will be left behind.
Learning to adapt and find new comforts in each hotel room or Airbnb will be a great benefit. These tips will help prepare you to work from the road and keep your clients happy while you explore the world.
Stay mindful of time zones
Chances are, you won’t always stay within the same time zone when you travel. In fact, you may even change time zones a few times during your trip. There are six time zones within the United States alone.
Trying to calculate time zones when you’re jetlagged is a surefire way to miss something important. Keeping track of your home time zone in relation to the time zone you travel to is a must for digital nomads.
When organizing your calendar, make a note of deadlines and meetings in both time zones. That way, there is no confusion about if you have a conference call at 10 a.m. Pacific or Eastern time.
If you typically have daily communication with clients, make sure they know you will be traveling. If they are used to hearing back from you quickly after sending you an e-mail, they might get miffed when they suddenly have to wait twelve hours for a response after you wake up in Italy.
Don’t lose power
At home, you have a place for each electronic device to stay plugged in. When you travel, you may end up in a place with only one outlet and five things that need to be charged. If you travel internationally, your American cords won’t plug into foreign outlets. Some newer hotels feature USB outlets, but you won’t find those everywhere.
At the very least, you will need a power strip. For international trips, look into a power strip or a power adapter that will fit outlets in the country of your destination. Since you never know how far the outlet will be away from where you are working, invest in a 6 or 10-foot cord for your phone or tablet.
Scope out the wifi
The more you travel, the more you will find that hotel wifi can’t be trusted. Think about what you will need wifi for during your trip, and make sure you will be able to send emails, take video calls, or upload large files.
When staying in an Airbnb, you can check in with the host to make sure they know you will be working during your stay. They should be able to let you know if their wifi is strong enough to do what you need to do.
In a hotel, there may be a lot of people using the network, and it may not be strong enough to suit your needs. If the place where you are staying doesn’t have good wifi, check local coffee shops. They are used to people working there for a few hours and often have better wifi than hotels.
Investigate your hotel or Airbnb by reading reviews. If the wifi is terrible, someone is going to make sure to leave a review about it.
The best way to know you will have reliable wifi for the duration of your travels is to invest in a hot spot and take it with you. Your company may even reimburse you for the cost since you will be using it for work purposes.
Use a VPN
While we’re on the subject of wifi, you will need to keep your information safe while traveling by using a virtual private network, or VPN. Even if you aren’t traveling, you should think about keeping yourself safe.
What is a VPN?
Virtual Private Network (VPN) protects your IP address so that your internet activity can’t be seen by others. Any data that you receive or send will be protected from internet bad guys, and your boss will thank you. Read all about VPNs to boost your online safety as you travel.
Don’t forget anything
Take a mental walk through your workday. Each task requires different tools. If you just snap up your laptop and throw it into your suitcase, you are going to get to your destination and realize you forgot something important.
Whether it’s a pack of Post-it Notes or the shelf that puts your monitor at the perfect height to keep you from getting a sore neck, you should keep your work setup as consistent as possible.
If you plan to travel regularly, invest in a travel-only work setup. It can stay packed when you return home, and you will be less likely to forget something the next time you take a trip.
Prepare your ears for new noises
At home, the noises in your environment are so familiar, you learn to tune them out. Some people even live next to train tracks and don’t notice when a train chugs by.
When you travel, this won’t be the case. In your hotel room, you will hear doors slamming as housekeeping makes their rounds. There may be construction outside. The people staying next door might have a child who hasn’t yet developed an “inside voice”.
If you go to a coffee shop to get some work done, you will hear the hum of the espresso machine, the hiss of the milk frother, and the friendly chatter of besties on coffee dates.
If you are easily distracted, you may discover that you are not as productive as anticipated. A good pair of noise-canceling headphones will help tune out the unfamiliar sounds and let you get your work done.
Take time to set up
When you get to your destination, designate an area for your office. Take some time to get set up and familiarize yourself with your new space. Locate outlets so you can use the power strip you brought. Make sure the chair is comfortable enough to sit in all day.
Get your technology set up and ready to go so that you don’t spend twenty minutes figuring everything out when the workday starts. You will start your day rattled and frustrated, and no one needs that.
Don’t let work overtake your travel
The whole reason you became a digital nomad was so you could travel and see the world. Don’t forget that and end up working the whole time without seeing any of the sights.
Set hard start and stop times for your work day and stick to them. Turn off your notifications and explore. After all, what is the point of traveling if you are just working the whole time?
Freedom to travel is an amazing job perk. It can be intimidating when you think about everything involved, but don’t let that stop you. The more you travel, the easier it gets.
There is so much for you to see, and now you can do it while you earn a paycheck. What landmarks are on your list for your first year of digital nomad life?
