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The Digital Nomad Life: A Guide to Working and Traveling Remotely

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Introduction The digital nomad lifestyle has become increasingly popular in recent years. With more jobs allowing for remote work and the rise of freelancing and online businesses, many people break free from traditional office life and take their work on the road. For some, it’s about the ability to travel and have new experiences. For others, it’s to escape the high cost of living areas and make their income stretch further. Becoming a digital nomad takes careful planning but can lead to a fulfilling life of work and adventure. This guide covers the key steps to transition into the location-independent, digital nomad lifestyle. Jobs For Digital Nomads The essential element for this lifestyle is having a remote job or online business that provides enough income.

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Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com

Some of the most common digital nomad jobs include:

  • Freelance writing and content creation
  • Web and software development
  • Online tutoring and teaching
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Dropshipping
  • Social media management
  • Virtual assistant services
  • Data entry and administrative roles

Many digital nomads gather income from multiple online sources, like freelance work, passive income, and side businesses. Building diverse income streams allows for a more stable and robust digital nomad life. Choosing a Remote Job and Convincing Your Employer For those transitioning from an office job, negotiating a remote work arrangement with your current employer is one route to nomadism. Present a plan for successfully working outside the office without disruption. Outline the collaborative tools and schedule you will use to stay connected to colleagues and be accountable. Highlight the many benefits studies show for remote employee productivity and work-life balance. With COVID-19 work-from-home mandates, many employers are now more accustomed to and comfortable with off-site employees. If your current job can’t be done remotely, start researching and applying for flexible online jobs months before departure. Having an income stream secured will make the transition much smoother. Establishing a Schedule and Work Routine Finding balance is one of the biggest struggles in learning how to live and work remotely. Days can easily blend together without the set hours and environment an office provides. Set regular work hours for yourself and create a daily routine. Try working from cafes or co-working spaces, so you have some separation between “home” and “work”. Schedule regular times for exercise, social activities, and exploring your surroundings. Adding structure to protect your free time and ensure you are working enough. Being your boss gives flexibility but also requires discipline. Experiment to find a schedule that optimizes your productivity and happiness. Choosing Where to Go Part of the appeal of location independence is that you can temporarily base yourself wherever you want. When selecting where to go as a digital nomad, consider the following:

  • Cost of living – Find places where your income will stretch the furthest. Sites like Nomadlist help compare.
  • Time zone – Minimize time zone differences if you work for companies based elsewhere.
  • Language – While some cities have thriving expat communities, try learning basic phrases in the local language. Being able to order food or get directions will dramatically improve your experience.
  • Safety – Research if the area is generally secure for travelers.
  • Infrastructure – Ensure reliable internet and electricity so you can get work done.
  • Activities – Having beautiful nature, historic sites, and a cultured food scene will make your time there more enjoyable.

Popular digital nomad destinations include Chiang Mai, Medellin, Lisbon, and Madrid for their ideal combination of low costs, friendly lifestyles, and robust infrastructure. But you can base yourself anywhere that fits your budget, interests, and work hours. Staying Connected While you’ll meet fellow travelers and locals, one challenge of extended remote work is maintaining friendships back home. Schedule regular video calls to catch up and feel connected. Co-working spaces also provide networking opportunities with others leading similar lifestyles. Consider periodically overlapping trips with friends, having visitors, or returning to your home base. Travel is fantastic, but so are the people in your life. Making an effort to nurture relationships will ensure your nomad experience feels well-rounded. Traveling Long-Term Deciding how long to remain in each place depends on your interests and visa requirements. Spend at least a month in each spot to experience daily life there. But also factor in tourist and digital nomad visa rules, which may restrict you to 60 or 90 days per country. Consider alternating periods of slower travel with remaining in “home bases” for a few months, where you can settle in more. This allows time to build a local community and take regional side trips. While traveling indefinitely sounds idyllic, long-term nomadism also has downsides like instability and loneliness. Check-in periodically on if this lifestyle still aligns with your goals and happiness. Remain open to shifting plans if needed. Being a digital nomad gives fantastic freedom. But crafting a life of work and travel requires effort and mindfulness. Follow this guide to turn the digital nomad dream into an enriching and sustainable lifestyle reality.  

Patience is the Key, Blessings, Success, and Life

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.”–Joyce Meyer 
Letting God do his work takes time. Patience allows God to see your faith, that you trust enough to allow your life’s destiny to open up as it should. When you lose hope because times get tough slows the progress.

self help, happy, peace

We all struggle with patience because we want everything right now. Living in a world that wants us to believe now!

The struggle is we don’t see an outcome being positive quickly enough then our first instinct is to jump in the middle of something that needs time. Yes, you have to do the work, what’s necessary to move things along.

There is a difference in taking steps to realize a change, or forcing something that is not altogether ready to manifest. For example, a relationship you push too hard when you push someone away because you don’t give them the time and space to come to the same place you are.

Worse still is you merely give up. “Oh this is not going to work, or it would have by now.” The Universe will align the sun, the moon, and the stars in your favor with Patience. Remember you cannot say I want a new job and then order a pizza and wait. You have to get out and do the work, look for a job, interview and keep chugging until you here “Welcome we want to hire you.”

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Steps toward Success

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”.– Albert Schweitzer

Forward motion is what we want. Taking steps every day toward our success. It’s not a question of giant steps or baby steps it’s moving forward. Of course, it is advisable to take as big action as you can every day. The more forward progress made, the less the distance to our final success destination is.

to do list, success, self help

Let’s take a look at what our day can look like, how tracking hour-to-hour our day. You will be amazed at what you can get done:

Example

8:00 AM to 9:00 AM
Review to-do list, get coffee out of the way, review emails, and voicemails.

9:00 AM to 9:30 AM

Take 30 minutes to work on something that moves you closer to success, example if it’s a business venture what can you do that will advance that project. Perhaps it’s your children, taking time to spend with them that is meaningful to the child. Busy parents learn to be present at the moment with a child. Put away the cell phone and truly experience something with your child. Hop on a game with them, get out in the backyard and watch birds, do something that is outside the norm. Fill 30 minutes with focused achievement.

9:30 AM to 10:30 AM

See what you can do by yourself for a solid hour of nothing but focused achievement. What this might look like, is working on your business plan, marketing plan. Fine-tuning your message.

Perhaps it’s taking one hour to focus on your garden again it’s what you are looking for that gives you that feeling of success. This is focused on time, without interruption. That means no phones, no email, and concentrate on the task at hand.

STOP HERE

Exercise time! Woohoo…

Okay, what I want you to do here is to stop what you’re doing. I wish you if not right now, no more than 24 hours from now. Take one hour and fill it with nothing but production. Follow these steps:

  1. Turn off the cell phone and no emails. During this hour, this is focused without interruption.
  2. Pick a task that has meaning. Do not CONFUSE activity with productivity! In the end, their needs to be some measurable result from this exercise.
  3. This can be something with the family, for yourself, work, it just does not matter. What I want you to learn from this is how much you can actually get done in 1 hour. A prime example to ponder, if you were Oprah Winfrey’s TV producer, you have to fill one hour with engaging content that keeps millions of people glued to the TV. A daunting task, but her team did it effectively for years. One hour! Think about that for a moment.
  4. This exercise is important. Don’t just keep reading, stop, and do this!

WELCOME BACK

For those that did this exercise great job. Filling 1 hour with nothing but productivity is hard. The take away here is “don’t confuse activity with productivity”!

A quick note. Do the exercises, you can read this book but doing the activities will make a change. Take the steps!

Have a clear action plan. Working in steps will keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Many failures occurred because someone was ill-prepared and became overwhelmed. Clouding good judgment.