Digital nomadism has become a fashion in the world of “smart” work. Surely you have someone you’ve been in your neighborhood a) you have not seen for a long time, b) whose Facebook is full of photos from world tours, c) beach still life with bare feet and a laptop under palm trees, d) statuses about how much it is everyone behind the water (literally). But just as tight ripped jeans do not suit everyone, digital nomadism is as well not for everyone. Why?
Get out of the office (take the job with you)
Digital nomadism is an elegant solution to the situation where the workload is growing and the vacancy decreases. We can define the digital nomad as a person who lives through the internet and who moves from place to place for a long time (and voluntarily).
Most often, these freelance people are interested in anything associated with websites and online environments, graphics, design or UX, the marketers, pi-Arista, copywriters, data analytics, and customer support staff. We can find among them also Internet entrepreneurs and even employees of companies who do not care to send out the results – especially when they are on time and right.
Do you work in any of the above professions? Here are some reasons why the nomad’s working style might suit you.
The sun and the heat
When the days begin to fall in the autumn, and the lack of sun will cause a fall in brain activity, it hurts into warm landscapes! When you pack the notebook (and the data for all cases you hide in the cloud), you can go. Perhaps in the Canary Islands, South East Asia, South America or just to Australia.
You save tens of thousands
At low cost, go to Asia (Japan do not take). Maybe in Thailand, you will enjoy the equivalent of 500 dollars per month. A studio apartment will cost you 250 a month, and you will eat at two dollars at every corner. Now compare it to the cost of living in Prague or Paris …
You will do more and in less time
Thanks to a change in the brain that stimulates the brain, you will get rid of the stereotypes of working with colleagues in the office, you get over-needed work (you stop dealing with insignificant things), plus: you play a time shift. While the bosses and colleagues are asleep, you can do the job and do not disturb you with emails or videos with sneezing panda or kittens on social networks.
Gradually, you learn how to communicate in the most efficient way, and discover what you will not be able to do in your work (from filling your attendance to annoying interviews with a coffee machine).
And you’ll also learn how to organize your time. How much of it you spend with work and how much relaxation to make it all and satisfaction reigns on all sides, it’s up to you.
Ideal work-life balance
Morning bath in the ocean, evening relaxation on a sun lounger overlooking the sunset, jungle or desert trips, adventures in the secrets of local customs and local cuisine …
What other people are planning to do next year (and then spend only ten days on vacation), you can comfortably combine with work and can do every day. Just be careful that there is no sand on the beach to keep your batteries in the notebook, and the mosquitoes did not eat you in the evening.
Like? Not to! But each coin has two sides, anywhere in the world …
What are the dark aspects of digital nomad life?
Working alone
Someone is not allowed to do it, others need people around.
Be honest with each other: If you need to work with others and the office crutch actually suits you, take the notebook out of your backpack and put it back to the open-space workbench.
In addition, you may start to miss your friends, your home or your love waiting for you in the Czech Republic or France. And then it’s working poorly …
Without discipline, it is not possible
If you do not have a steel discipline and you need to keep its directions and pressure from the outside, like a digital nomad you might have burned. You would see the world, but the poor as a church mouse returned from it.
Nomad = permanent change
Every move to a new location means that you have to “invent” your routine again, depending on where you are, what habits are there, and the availability of basic needs (for your life and your work).
If you adapt to the changes wrong, it is sensible to get used to them. Slowly. Surely not from the day-to-day exit of the tracks and depart to the other end of the world.
Dependence on technologies (and connections)
Without wifi and a bluffed notebook, you’re uploaded. Dot.
Beware of local legislation
You will not make the mistake of finding out in advance how the laws of your target country regulate the work of foreigners. Sometimes it is quite disadvantageous – or even illegal – and you definitely do not want to cross the local courts.
And how will it be with retirement and insurance?
On social networks, people do not usually admire it, but the fact is that many digital nomads definitely do not live high. What they earn, they usually hit another journey. They do not think much about ground-based things such as retirement, savings or insurance.
Mistake!
Even the largest nomad will want to settle with his age. And if it does not work with a few of the companies that allow this lifestyle and de facto to subsidize, or as a freelancer does not earn (and do not) a good old age bundle, his old knees will not be overwhelmed by the enviable experiences of traveling around the world.
So before you go around the world as another digital nomad, we’d better think about these issues as well.
Christoph Columbus did not live in riches in old age. And that he saw a good piece of the world!
