10 Productivity Tips For Digital Nomads
The lifestyle of a digital nomad is something more people want every year. The opportunity to have your own schedule and to make a living while you travel is a dream come true for most. Now, with the pandemic threats, many people are having a taste of this lifestyle by working from home and they may take a liking to it. These are some tips you can follow to make the most of your working hours. Most of them, you can apply even if you are just working remotely from your own home.
The lifestyle of a digital nomad is something more people want every year. The opportunity to have your own schedule and to make a living while you travel is a dream come true for most. Now, with the pandemic threats, many people are having a taste of this lifestyle by working from home and they may take a liking to it. These are some tips you can follow to make the most of your working hours. Most of them, you can apply even if you are just working remotely from your own home.
1. Create a Work Routine
Keeping a routine is very important for every human with traditional working life, but even more so for digital nomads. Being on the move takes a lot of getting used to. There are continuous changes that the mind and body have to adjust to, so there is no need to add to that stress by constantly improving your work habits. Create an adaptable routine that can still work anywhere you go. This is to ensure that you can still keep productivity at an optimal level.
2. Remove Distractions
One of the biggest problems when working out of an unconventional setting like your home, Airbnb, or hostel is the number of distractions. Before starting your working hours, you should try to minimize distractions as much as you can. This includes placing your phone in another room if necessary so that you can focus on one task at a time. If you are working out of a home office, it’d be wise to make your designated work hours known to others living in the same house so that they can cooperate.
3. Use a Project Management Tool
With the numerous developments in technology, there are many tools available for remote workers such as Trello, Asana, or Hootsuite, which help with organizing, time-tracking, and scheduling around your to-do lists. Not only will these tools help you to stay on track but they can make matters even more convenient for digital nomads like yourself. For instance, most of them are available across multiple devices so you can still access work-related files whenever and wherever.
4. Take Advantage of Traveling Hours
The definition of digital nomads are people who dedicate their lives to working on the road, and they achieve this by working remotely from anywhere in the world. Constant traveling means spending a lot of time in airports, buses, airplanes, or even train stations. If you are used to working on the fly, you can take advantage of all the waiting times by getting some work done in-between.
5. Establish Your Own Productive Period
One of the benefits of remote work is that you get to decide where and when to work. You can change up your hours to try and find when you are most productive. It might take a couple of experiments—some are nine-to-five workers, while others are nocturnals who prefer burning the midnight oil. After establishing your personal productivity period, you can set your schedule accordingly. This, however, is not the final step. Another important thing is to make sure you actually put in work in the designated hours.
6. Track Your Time and Activities
A good way to know if you are actually being productive during your work hours is to track your time and activities. Make sure to separate your schedule in blocks and check the progress of each part. By doing so, you may get a different perspective on your own work habits. For instance, you might have spent a long time working on one thing when you could’ve worked on other tasks that are more pressing. Don’t be afraid to keep yourself in check if you want to succeed as a digital nomad.
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7. Find the Right Space
Digital nomads don’t necessarily have the luxury to have their own personalized space due to the constant traveling. Because of this, it is important to spend some time researching for a workspace that is conducive to a high productivity level before making the next move. If you are heading to a town, maybe you can find some reliable co-working spaces or cafes with steady Wi-Fi connections where you can work from. However, if you are going to a more remote area, you can probably forego other aspects of a traditional office setting as long as you have essentials such as electricity and the internet.
8. Don’t Forget to Take Breaks
Sometimes when you get too focused on a task, you will wind up spending hours in front of your laptop. It is crucial to take small breaks every now and then—even just to grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen or to do some stretches. This will not only help your physical health but your mental health as well.
9. Take Time for Sightseeing
One of the reasons most people decide to embrace the digital nomad lifestyle is to get to know new places. While it is important to have a steady income to sustain this lifestyle, don’t forget the things that brought you to wherever you are right now. Allocate some time to actually go sightseeing and make friends with the locals or other digital nomads in the area. The key is having an effective work schedule that gives you plenty of time to visit all those cool places you dream of.
10. Take Some Personal Time
Sometimes it is even more challenging to set boundaries when you work on your own time and schedule. Make sure you don’t neglect other aspects of life by making time for your yoga lessons, or even casual strolls. Being on the road is a great opportunity to make new friends everywhere you go, so make sure to take advantage of that. The goal here is to create a happy and healthy work-life balance and we believe you can do it.
Conclusion
Whatever happens, there are many ways and means for you to become a digital nomad. Whether you move your work from an office-based to a job like teaching of the English language to learners online, there are many routes to go down that don’t require you to be tied to an office desk. Have you made the change? Let us know what your career switch was in the comments below and what advice you have for anyone thinking of switching to a more flexible lifestyle.
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