Over the past year, the pandemic has revealed what many workers have suspected for a long time: There are a lot of jobs that, with the right tools, can be performed from almost anywhere. Yes! Long-term remote work has an extensive history and, even more exciting, can free you up to explore the world.
By choosing the path of the digital nomad, you can earn a living while traveling the country or even the globe, as long as you have the right tech on hand to help you.
What is a Digital Nomad?
Digital nomads are people who travel constantly, but unlike nomads in the historic sense, they rely on technology to maintain their career. They may be freelancers, travel bloggers, run a drop-shipping business, or simply people who sell various skills like massage, yoga lessons, and haircuts using digital connections.
Depending on how reliable your source of income is, it can be a tough gig, but it also features a degree of freedom that most people will never experience.
It’s Tech Intensive
Given the fact that many people never leave home without their laptop, cellphone, and headphones, it’s easy to presume you already have the basic equipment to take up a new life as a digital nomad … but it’s not quite that easy. Achieving success when you don’t have a home base means carrying a lot of equipment with you.
How much depends on your job. In general, as a digital nomad, except that you’ll need the above basics – your everyday carry from your old life – as well as international connectivity via a service like GoogleFi, a separate camera or phone lenses, and extra battery packs, among other items.
You may not take much else with you, but you won’t be traveling light when it comes to technology.
Connect with the Cloud
Though it was possible to operate as a digital nomad before cloud technology went mainstream, it was much riskier and more complicated. Think about “finding a library in another country to set up an FTP with your editor 6 time zones away” for the level of complexity involved!
Today, though, the cloud has made matters much easier and helped countless digital nomads avoid losing vital files when someone steals their laptop from the hostel or it gets soaked in the rain.
Every digital nomad should make sure their updated files are uploaded to cloud storage so the content remains accessible in the event of tech damage. A growing number of individuals even use these platforms to support international collaborations.
When you don’t need to be in the same conference room with someone to work together on a task, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.
Stay Creative
Digital nomads approach their lifestyle in a variety of ways, but that’s a big part of what makes it fun. For example, some use their unstructured lifestyle to visit exciting new locales, while others choose short-term adventures, such as outfitting an RV with the right technology to spend a year or two on the road with family.
Whatever approach you prefer, leading an untethered life can be transformative, even if it’s also uncertain. What’s important is that you maintain an open mind and a spirit of adventure at all times. Anything can happen, it’s true, but that’s exactly why people have chosen to become digital nomads in the first place.