Hi NomadHers!

Your fellow NomadHer SooMin, reporting from sunny Madeira 🏝️ At the beginning of June, I worked as a digital nomad on the island with the NomadHer team. Thought I would check-in and talk about what it is like to live the digital nomad life!

First of all, what is a digital nomad?

It’s a word that is used for people that have careers or jobs that are in large part or fully remote. This means you might be employed, for example, in Germany by a German startup but you’re residing, paying taxes, and officially based in another country - like Vietnam for example. Or maybe you don’t even live in a different country. Maybe you live in Germany, but you constantly change your location and work from there. One week in Peru, the other in Brazil… It’s been a new way of working that’s always existed, but that has become more pronounced with the Covid-19 pandemic.

For those wondering, I am currently working as a Freelance Business Consultant for South Korean SMEs wanting to do business in Europe. My work is project-based so some months I’m crazy busy, other months, super free. In parallel, I’m finishing a second Master’s degree right now, also fully remote. I’ve also previously launched my own ed-tech project in 2020 and was a COO. My cofounder lives in another country from me so we both worked together remotely on that project too.

I haven’t been properly in an office, classroom setting or meeting room in almost 3 years now. So yes, I am indeed a digital nomad!

Before I chat with you about my experience, do you love the idea of being a digital nomad? Does it sound like a dream way of working? Or an absolute nightmare? Comment below before you start reading about my experience to compare, and see if your vision of things may change after reading 😉

In my experience, when I tell people I am a digital nomad, the usual response I get are the two following:

“you’re so lucky, being able to work at the beach in a bikini… You must love being a digital nomad! Work must not even feel like work for you.”

Or,

“it doesn’t feel like you’re working in a very serious way. Surely you can’t get anything done working from home like that all the time. Don’t you get depressed from it?”

I would say there is some level of truth in those statements, but also a large amount of misconception. So, let’s talk about what it’s really like to be a digital nomad. The good and the ugly!

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💦 You work just as much being a digital nomad as not being one.

If you’re committed to working and your monthly income depends on it, you’re going to work hard, no matter the job format. If you’re a digital nomad and you get lazy at work or just don’t show up by partying at the beach, your workplace will definitely let you go. Even digital nomads that are founders themselves work twice as much sometimes even though they have employees working for them and they’re working with the dream scenery in front of them. From the perspective of someone that works in an office, remote work may seem like a joke or a holiday - but it really is neither. Deadlines remain deadlines and working towards a salary, to be able to pay your employees, to support your family… Those are very real concerns. And whether those concerns are within the office setting or outside, they remain the same. You may be working at the beach, yes. You may have an amazing landscape in front of you. The reality is though, you’ve got things to do.

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📍 You don’t actually always end up discovering the dream location you’re working at.

About that dream scenery in front of you while working - this may become the only scenery you end up seeing. What’s surprising sometimes about remote work is that even though you’re working or living in your dream country, because you’re so busy you just may not have time to visit anything or do anything. This depends of course on how much work you’ve got to do and what your work may expect of you - but it’s definitely a thing. Even worse, if you go to a country where your wifi connection isn’t at 100%, you may have to go on the hunt for a coworking space or simply stay in your hotel room. Which really is not very much different from working in an office setting.

😭 Being a digital nomad can be lonely.

Depending on the line of work you do, you may have to work alone. Without a team next to you, things can get lonely pretty fast. Even for people that have digital teams that they constantly do online meetings with, the lack of human contact can get tiresome real fast. That Zoom/Skype/Meets fatigue is real. Loneliness can also affect your productivity too. As you’re a digital nomad, you have to force yourself to be productive, plan your own work days and be your own boss. Don’t feel like working because you see the bed next to you at home? Or the beach? Tough luck, you’ve got to work on that productivity. This could mean taking a quick jog to get your brain working again or changing the spot you’ve been working at. But it still means you’ve got to motivate yourself to do it. All by your lonesome self.

… But there are great things too!

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🗺️ Location flexibility still means the world is your oyster.

I mentioned sometimes you don’t end up travelling as much as you’d think. It’s true, but if you’re also a healthy nomad that makes sure to keep your health and work/life balance on track, you’ll be energized enough to enjoy your weekends or days off. That’s when the world will really feel like your oyster. Maybe you spent Monday to Friday working in a coworking space in Costa Rica - but on the weekend you’re going to be able to hit the beach, meet locals, go surfing, and eat some great food. It’s all about balance. This is definitely a privilege you can’t quite indulge in if you’re a classic 9 to 5 Monday to Friday office worker, because you’d need to take official holiday days off to leave the place you live in.

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👭 Make friends and meet coworkers beyond your permanent personal and professional location.

Working in a traditional office you’ll mainly meet people within your office, partners of the place you work at or people in direct relation with the place you work at. As a digital nomad, the people you meet professionally are super diverse. Not only are your online coworkers may be located all over the world, from all sorts of places, and based in all kinds of timezones; your network will expand in directions you may not even expect! You may meet fellow digital nomads at a coworking space in another country. Or people working in completely different fields from you that also are digital nomads in the country you’re visiting.

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⏰ Time becomes your friend.

Being a digital nomad is great for people that are good at planning and being organized about their work. Maybe you’re not much of a morning person? As a digital nomad, that’s fine as long as you’d be able to make your meetings. Maybe one day you’ll need to get up at 3 am because you have a meeting with colleagues on the other side of the world. Bummer. But maybe in the next 5 days, you’ll be able to sleep in until 11 am and start your work day late, and instead work later into the evening. Maybe one day you work a half-day and the next, slightly more than a traditional full day. Time truly becomes your friend with remote work, if you’re dedicated to keeping on track with everything.

One last note.

Pro-tip for those considering a digital nomad life: the constant battle will be maintaining a healthy balance between personal and professional life. Precisely because you are a digital nomad, the two sometimes blur into each other. Burnouts are no joke, and your mental and physical health both truly come first. So if you’re considering this format of work, you’ve got to draw clear boundaries for yourself. Exercise regularly, learn to pull yourself away from work, and always dedicate some solid days off from work. There will always be another day to work on things, another moment to finish up what you’re working on.

This way of working is for some, not for others. Like everything in life ✨ Good luck!

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