Part 3 – The Day to Day Life of a Digital Nomad

In my previous posts, I’ve explained how to become a digital nomad, from the harder bits like getting jobs and how to travel, to the more practical side of things.

Now I want to give you a glimpse at my day to day life as a digital nomad. Hint! It actually isn’t sitting on a beach with a cocktail and my laptop!

What I do on a day to day basis as a digital nomad

This may come as a shock to some people as they think I’m always travelling but I do actually have to work.

Although my job is fully remote and fully flexible, I do try to stick to working Monday to Friday and have normal office hours, maybe 9-5.

I need to work 40 hours per week and I find that to be the most beneficial to me. There are times when I have to work late as I have meetings with people in other time zones, but that is pretty rare happening only a couple of times per month.

Finding a good place to work can be challenging as well. Although I can work from a kitchen table or a desk in my accommodation on the rare occasion there is one, I prefer to work from coworking spaces. Finding a good quality coworking space can be a challenge and I may have a day in a few different spaces before deciding to sign up for a month in the one I consider the best.

Although I know some that do it, I don’t find I work well from coffee shops, pubs or in parks and public spaces. I can do it for an hour or so but it isn’t something I would ever do for 40 hours per week!

The mundane

Depending on where I am, I also have to do everything else that normal people do: laundry, eating, shopping etc. and each of these is slightly different depending on what country I’m in.

Some of the AirBnB’s and apartments I stay in have a washing machine whilst in some places I’ve had to go to a laundrette to get my clothes clean. When I’m in Asia, I eat out and have street food everyday so I never have to cook or get groceries, but when I’m in other countries, I will have to go to a supermarket or market to stock up on food.

If I’m only staying in a city for a short time, I may head out in the evenings to local parks or events. For the times I stay in a place like Europe and have my own kitchen, I will still try and go out to local restaurants about once per week to experience the local food.

If I’m close to a gym, I will try and sign up for however long I’m staying and may go to the gym in the evenings or early mornings, depending on their schedule.

The rest of my evenings will be filled with planning for where I’m going next or what I will be doing on the weekends. Not speaking the language, not knowing where to go or how to get around makes planning a trip so much harder than if I were to plan a day trip for myself in London, the city I grew up in and know so well.

Planning the trips

I’ve often asked my friends how often they spend planning their 2 week holiday each year. The answers range from a few days to a few weeks if not many many evenings over a computer.

For me, my entire life is constantly planning where to go next, how to get there and what to do when I’m there. Not to mention the planning and confusion of where I am right now. My life is a constant battle of planning and researching what to do where I am and what to do for where I’m going.

My friends that spend weeks planning a two week trip, understand that my constant life on the road and travel know that I am also constantly planning and moving.

I know that life isn’t for everyone but it is what I do..

If you want to become a digital nomad, then don’t bother if you don’t like travel planning. I spend a lot of my life doing it, especially when I go to new countries.

But all that travel planning must come in between your work, the 9-5, your day job. It needs to be in the evenings when you aren’t exploring. Or when you are in someplace you know well and aren’t going to travel to.

Socialising

Depending on where I am travelling will depend on how much socialising I do.

When I am in remote places like Kyrgyzstan, Oman or the Caribbean, there are few is any digital nomads around so I don’t get to socialise that much.

But when I head to some of the bigger digital nomad hubs such as Bansko or Chiang Mai, then I can be socialising almost every night of the week. At times it can almost become too much!

Blogging

I run this blog as a bit of a side hustle earning some money from ads and affiliate links. But I also run it because I like helping people. Nearly every destination I visit, every day trip I take and most major cities I spend some time in, I write about to help people travel to that destination in the future.

Strangely, I don’t really enjoy the writing side of things but it is something I’ve improved the longer I have had this blog (don’t believe me, go and look at some of my early posts from 2021!). But I still do it to help travellers who go to off the beaten path destinations and to encourage more people to become digital nomads in destinations that remote workers don’t normally go to.

The blog takes up some time but I do enjoy spending my evenings or spare weekend on this website and improving it for others.

Social media

And who doesn’t have a social media account these days? I run it alongside this website  to encourage others to travel and to get my name out there a bit more. I’ve had a number of questions from people about where to travel and tips on what to do when they are there. And I’m always happy to help.

But trying to have fun travelling, and planning, and posting on social media (because all of your content has to be amazing for the #algorithm) can take its toll. I normally don’t go on social media when I travel and then upload what I can when I’m sitting in my next destination bored one evening.

It is also a good way of keeping up with others you meet on your travels and finding out about new destinations you may want to travel to in future.

Actual travelling

Whether this is going out in the evenings, taking a day trip on weekends, or even spending a full weekend away, I naturally try to travel as much as possible when in other countries. Depending on where I am and the time of year, I occasionally take some time off work for some extended travels.

But the reason I work remotely is to see the country I’m in so it makes sense to explore as much as possible. I love trying new restaurants in the evenings or wandering around a museum on a random weekday if I can fit it into my schedule.

If I take a week off work, the five working days, plus the two weekends either side mean I have 9 days to see as much of a country as possible. Something that is normally pretty achievable for most small to medium sized countries.

Summing up the day to day life of a digital nomad

Working remotely is a dream for many after viewing images on social media of sitting in hammocks with laptops and coconuts. But the reality of day to day life can be very different.

Being a digital nomad can be great, and if you have a job that has ultimate flexibility, there are so many more opportunities for travel. But if your schedule is more fixed, the options to travel adventurously may be reduced and you’ll spend more time working.

But don’t forget about the mundane as well! The planning, the laundry, the grocery shopping. All of that needs to be done whilst you’re “living the dream” of working from the other side of the world.

Dan

Dan is an avid traveller from London. His first big adventure was in 2010 living in Malaysia for 3 months. He has been on the road almost constantly since 2015 travelling to destinations that aren’t on the mainstream tourist trail and working full time and travelling since 2021.