Who Are Digital Nomads And Why Should You Become One For Living Your Best Life?

Have you ever imagined sitting in a cosy cafe in Paris, sipping a cappuccino and seamlessly managing your work from your laptop? Well, this is the lifestyle of digital nomads; enjoying the freedom of travel by working remotely. So, why should you become a digital nomad; let’s explore –

Who are digital nomads?

Digital nomads mainly manage their work from anywhere using technology and the internet while moving to a new destination. Instead of being tied to a 9 to 5 job, a digital nomad uses modern devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets and with the help of the internet complete their tasks from any location.

Whether it is a café in Paris, a beach in Bali, a co-working space in Tokyo or a hotel in Dubai- a digital nomad independently completes their work remotely. Some digital nomads stayed in one place for a few weeks or a few months before shifting their location. They travel between cities or countries to enjoy their travel and fulfil their tasks.

The evaluation of the digital nomads

The evaluation of the digital nomadism movement can be traced back to technological advancement in the late 20^th century. In 1983, the world’s first portable computer, Compaq Portable, was launched by a company named Compaq Computer Corporation. The heavy and suitcase-sized device with a higher price tag of $3,590 (expected to be around $9,500 today) became popular among people and sold 50,000 units in the first year of launch.

The idea of separating work from a fixed location rose with the launch of the portable device Compaq Portable. However, during the 1970s era, a former NASA engineer, Jack Niles, introduced the word “telecommunicating.” Niles is celebrated as the “father of remote work” because of his idea of introducing remote work as a solution to urban congestion and the global oil crisis during that era.

The earliest digital nomad is considered to be Steven K. Roberts. Between 1983 and 1991, Roberts took a bicycle and travelled around 17,000 miles across America. He left his expensive lifestyle in Columbus, Ohio. He sold his home. He started his travel journey by customising his bicycle with a solar-powered keyboard and screen through which he could work while travelling.

Robert arranged this innovative set-up because he wanted to enjoy life in freedom. Henceforth, he explores the life of a freelance writer and explorer. His bicycle became a technological miracle over the years and became $1.2 million worth. His bicycle can be found in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

In 1997, the term “digital nomad” was formally introduced by Japanese technologist Tsugio Makimoto in his book “Digital Nomad.” In his book, he argued that technological advancement is pushing the world towards smaller, more accessible and portable devices. He predicted that this technological advancement would allow people to remotely work while travelling.

The technological landscape in 1997 was a little different from today when Makimoto wrote the book. In the US, DVD players were sold commercially in 1997, for $599 to $750 per unit. Additionally, the MP3 file format was just invented, and the first ever Grand Theft Auto game was just installed in Play Station 1.

The prediction of Makimoto was accurate as in the early 2000s, digital devices like laptops, smartphones and internet access were introduced. However, in 2010, the cultural shifts towards location-independent work happened.

The gig economy and the creator economy created several job opportunities for remote workers. A significant movement of remote work takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic. The global lockdown forced people to work from home, and hence the mass shift of remote work was initiated.

Many workers are dissatisfied with their workplace due to the lack of work-life balance by following the “Great Resignation.” In this way, remote work became the gateway of digital nomadism and the pandemic accelerated the trend of digital nomads.

In today’s era, the digital nomad lifestyle gets hyped from social media. Travel vloggers are sharing their digital nomad lifestyle through their YouTube channel, Instagram account, TikTok videos and more.

Nowadays, remote work has become the mainstream for many companies including Twitter, Square, Shopify and more. Companies are nurturing this work because it costs less money to operate and because of getting a proper work-life balance employees become more productive.

Characteristics of digital nomads

Digital nomads choose their lifestyle of being a digital nomad. Henceforth, they have the characteristics of digital savvy, self-discipline, minimalism, adaptability and effective communication ability.

Digitally savvy

The lifestyle of digital nomads is based on technology. Therefore, a digital nomad has the skill of using laptops, smartphones and other technological software with appropriate knowledge of using them. Being digitally savvy, a digital nomad became able to stay connected, delivering work and managing tasks.

One needs to regularly update their software and tools for better performance and further security.  Knowing antivirus programs, operating systems and more to protect data and ensure everything is running smoothly became beneficial to deliver work within time. 

Self-disciplined

Discipline is the first rule of efficient work. A digital nomad is self-disciplined to complete the scheduled task. A new location may bring plenty of distraction. However, a digital nomad set their personal goal and follow a routine despite plenty of distractions.

The freedom of travel and work worked as a double-edged sword. It brings flexibility, but if do not utilise it with self-discipline it might turn into laziness. Henceforth, a digital nomad always track their daily activities, follow a routine and maintain their habits to deliver tasks within a scheduled time and enjoy their present location.

Minimalism

The digital nomads have been found to shift from one location to another to enjoy their moment of life by managing work-life balance, the philosophy of a minimalist lifestyle has been found in them. A digital nomad priortise the important items in their life rather than being materially possessive. They like to pack their belongings easily and shift to another location to be adaptive to the environment.

A digital nomad prioritize to store every essential working data in digital tools and cloud storage, so that they do not have to bring a lot of gadgets. They foster a mindset in which rather than spending on purchasing goods, they invest in their personal growth, travelling and learning.

Adaptable

A digital nomad changes their locations frequently, for which the adaptable characteristic has been found in them. While travelling from country to country, then the culture, lifestyle, food, weather and more will change. Being adaptable has allowed them to embrace new challenges and experience open-mindedness.

Moreover, travelling in different locations might be challenging because of different time zones, internet speed and more. The ability to adapt to the environment and extract some efficient solutions against the challenges makes it easier to lead the lifestyle of a digital nomad.

Communication

To thrive in different cultural environments, a digital nomad has been found to gain the ability of effective communication. They are often noted to be dependent on different communication tools including instant messaging, video conferencing and more.

However, digital nomads are usually found to be masters in speaking different languages while travelling the world. They have been noted to be culturally adaptive in different locations so that they can be able to communicate with anyone in a completely new place while handling work remotely.

Benefits of being digital nomads

If you are a social media consumer, then you might be familiar with travel vloggers. Travel vloggers usually share their travel experiences from different corners of the world besides managing their travel expenses. Well, there are other benefits of being a digital nomad including more productive, more adaptable, better work-life balance, personal and professional growth and so on.

More productive

A digital nomad leads a life with flexibility and freedom. As long as they have a digital device and a stable internet connection they can deliver their work. A balance between professional and personal life has been maintained and the productivity of them increased with time.

A digital nomad is more productive than a traditional office worker. Traditional office workers have to work at a scheduled time set by the office, but a digital nomad can schedule their working time according to their comfort. This leads them more productive in delivering work and bringing innovative ideas to achieve meaningful results.

Better work-life balance

In today’s highly competitive world, the work-life balance has disappeared from 9 to 5 workers. On the other hand, a better work-life balance increases productivity among workers and improves their mental as well as physical health. If you are choosing to be a traditional office worker, then it might be impossible to get a work-life balance; but with digital nomads, the results might be different.

One of the main benefits of choosing a digital nomad lifestyle is the flexibility of deciding working hours. A digital nomad can choose their productive hours, take breaks whenever they want, can pursue their hobbies and more without taking the pressure of obeying office hours. This flexibility oftentimes reduces burnout and stress among them and both their mental and physical well-being is enhanced. 

Personal and professional growth

The lifestyle of digital nomads is full of adventure, challenges and opportunities. Getting exposed to new ideas frequently brings personal growth. Meeting new people, travelling to a new place, learning a new language, embracing new culture and more make them aware and well-rounded.

As they get exposed to new perspectives constantly they start to foster new creativity, problem-solving skills, effective communication abilities and more. Digital nomad gains self-confidence regarding what they are doing and what they want from their lives. Hence, they became able to choose innovative career paths with a focused mindset.

Lower cost of living

Being a digital nomad, the greatest opportunity is to choose a country which has a lower cost of living than the home country. Some of the lower-cost-of-living countries are Nepal, Bhutan, Mexico, Colombia and more; whereas the US and Australia come under the higher-cost-of-living countries.

A digital nomad saves their money on fixed expenses which are mostly associated with a traditional home including car payments, mortgages, utilities and the like. Travelling to lower-cost-of-living countries allowed a digital nomad to explore beautiful landscapes, relaxed lifestyles, rich cultures, reliable internet, safety and more.

Full-time traveller

The person who loves travelling and wants to explore the world through travelling can fulfil their dream by adopting the lifestyle of digital nomads. You can travel as much as you want whenever you want and wherever you want. With the flexibility of the digital nomad working style, one became able to move from one city to another, even one country to another as per personal preference.

This lifestyle allowed one to constantly explore new destinations besides fulfilling working commitments. A digital nomad has the chance to explore hidden gems, embrace new cultures and more while working through a laptop, smartphone or any kind of digital device. In this way, one can become a full-time traveler to experience life from a new perspective. 

Knowledge of different cultures

If you are choosing a digital nomad lifestyle, then you have the chance to view life from another perspective of different cultures. Building a new connection with diverse people who belong to different cultures, regions and backgrounds might gives you a chance to learn more about yourself.

People who lead the lifestyle of digital nomads gain the ability to build their own values, habits and beliefs regarding their work. This leads to enhanced personal growth. For instance, understanding different cultures helps them to improve their communication skills, adaptability and more.

Difficulties of being digital nomads

Every opportunity brings challenges also and the digital nomads are no exception. It might help to lead a work-life balance and chance to travel the world, but has some difficulties also for which many people avoid adopting this lifestyle.

Stress

Choosing the lifestyle of a digital nomad is not easy for everyone. Staying outside most of the time became stressful for the long term. Adopting a digital nomad lifestyle required constant changes in getting adapted to a new place, getting a new SIM card while moving to another place, and finding grocery stores, hotels and the like became stressful after a period.

Moreover, travelling abroad brings the most common issue of different time zones. It became difficult to set meetings with new clients according to the time zone. Additionally, operating in different time zones impacts the normal sleep cycle which can also create stress, anxiety and tension.

Loneliness

Not everyone became ready to be a digital nomad. Therefore, if you are interested in being a digital nomad and your loved ones are not, then you might feel lonely after a certain period. Then it became tough for your mental health to travel to new locations and side by side managing your tasks.

Being a digital nomad, it became difficult to always keep in touch with family and friends, especially in different time zones. Most of the time a digital nomad misses family occasions, festivals and events due to the pressure of their work, not getting visas and other reasons. The feeling of loneliness disrupts the work-life balance.

Lack of stability

The digital nomads have no stability in their lives. There is no stable home for them where they can go back to take rests. Without a stable home, they oftentimes find it challenging to create a sense of belonging or routine.

Several issues including accommodation issues, grocery issues and more can heavily impact the mental health of people. Due to instability, people started to lose their connection with their loved ones failed to create deep relationships and ultimately became depressed with their lives.

Reliant on internet connection

Although the internet connection is the prominent tool of being a digital nomad, this can be one of the significant issues in the life of a digital nomad. There are several areas in many international countries where connection inconsistency has become a huge issue for digital nomads. The inconsistency might disrupt the consistency of the digital nomads while handling travel and work remotely.

Additionally, not every country or location has a good Wi-Fi infrastructure through which hotspots can be connected to digital devices. International SIM cards, for instance, are very expensive to purchase and not a long-term solution. Henceforth, it became challenging to locate a good location for a stable internet connection.

Lack of access to healthcare

Lack of sleep, stress and constant travelling can cause severe illness. In international locations, there will be no one to take care of one’s health and provide them with appropriate treatment.

Some less developed countries might not have good healthcare facilities or the language barrier can be a challenging factor when describing your issues to healthcare professionals. Henceforth, before leaving their home country, digital nomads always consider purchasing international health insurance so that if any unfortunate accidents happen, they will be covered by the insurance.

How to became digital nomads

To become digital nomads, developing the right skills and finding the right job is necessary. Some significant jobs of digital nomads include graphic designer, front-end developer, social media manager, content creator, copywriter, data analyst, photographer and more. Therefore, the first step will be to gain skills in these specific fields to handle work remotely from any location.

The second step will be to choose the right destination. To travel to international destinations, passports, visas, health insurance, taxes and more are highly required. Therefore, choosing a destination where there will be no legal issues might be a suitable place for a digital nomad.

The chosen destination also needs to be safe as travelling brings different kinds of risks regarding gender, religion, sexual orientation and more. After determining all the places that are legally available and safe, you can easily choose the destination where you want to go.

After deciding on a destination third step will be to set a budget. It is highly necessary to consider a budget by measuring upcoming expenses on different things. Starting from rental options, how frequently you are changing your location, where to get meals and groceries, business costs and other additional expenses need to be considered before setting a budget.

After choosing the right job, and desired destinations, and setting the budget, the fourth step will be to apply for the visa if the chosen destination is an international country. However, after getting your visa, you can fly to your destinations. Where fifth step will be finding the digital nomad community.

It might sound great to become a digital nomad and handle work remotely while travelling. However, one of the biggest challenges in digital nomads is loneliness and to avoid this condition, connecting with like-minded people is highly essential. Different online platforms like Nomad List, meetup.com or local social media pages will be great options to connect with nomad people, create groups, initiate events and more.

Some recommended international destinations for digital nomads

Some international destinations which are budget-friendly and have stable internet connections are Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Costa Rica and more.

Vietnam

Vietnam is a safe country for travellers and digital nomads Ho Chi Minh City might be a hotspot to live at a lower cost. Food, rent and transportation are inexpensive. It also has a good internet connection in the urban areas. Additionally, the digital nomad community is also growing in this country.

Nepal

The cost of living in Nepal is low. The culture of Nepal is rich and varied with a high adventure. The Internet connectivity is good in the cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara. Moreover, the visa process for Nepal is easy and the tech community is also growing in this country. Henceforth, it might be a great destination for the digital nomads who want to experience a blend of nature, culture and adventure.

Indonesia

Indonesia’s Bali island became a digital nomad hotspot because of its beautiful landscape, lower cost of living and strong remote work infrastructure. Bali offers the best co-working space, fast Wi-Fi, a nomad community and a relaxed atmosphere for work. Ubud, Canggu, Sanur and Uluwatu are particularly famous among digital nomads.

Costa Rica

In Central America, the small country, of Costa Rica is located and might be a great location who love nature. To create a work-life balance this country will be a great choice with its stunning beaches, rainforests and more. It offers good internet connectivity and a moderate cost of living compared to Western countries with its major towns like San Jose, Tamarindo and more.

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