The life of a digital nomad
When was the last time you actually worked from an office? A real cubicle, with real colleagues around you, following a real schedule?
For my part, I can’t remember… 
During the last week only, I have been:
– Catching up on my emails at Roissy airport lounge
– Answering my calls in the train from Geneva to Lausanne
– Updating my blog in a cafe in Madrid
– Checking interesting videos on many friends’ couches all around the world…
Exciting! … And exhausting at the same time…
Because the only thing you need at the end of the day in this ever-connected world is your computer (aka. lifetime partner) and a good wifi connection. Which can be found in almost any place now around the world.
So why put up with the London traffic jams, the rainy Parisian weather or the noisy city centers if you can actually work from anywhere?
That’s based on that questioning that a international tribe of digital nomads emerged, a group of world citizens who do not wish to live by the rules or compromise on their quality of life.
And it’s not so much a question of money at the end of the day. While renting your flat on Airbnb, it actually costs less to work from Bali or Costa Rica than in a coworking hub in Barcelona.
Maslow 2.0
Lately, many solopreneurs, free-lancers or even start-up founders have decided that they would rather code in Thailand than in freezing Copenhaguen.
That is the case of Michael Boedakaer, who left Denmark to set up Start up Getaway. This is the first exotic co-working space, offering entrepreneurs to wake up in a paradisiac AND productive environement, in Bali, Indonesia. As a matter of fact, the island has become THE place to be for digital nomads.
Steve Munroe, the founder of HUB Ubud, another inspiring coworking space overseeing rice paddies, explains how his international community was looking for a haven to escape from our overstressed world. Entrepreneurs, international crowd looking for great connectivity, intellectual stimulation and great quality of life with surfing and diving spots all around…
Now, various retreats like Work from Bali offer entrepreneurs to spend working time away from their traditional environment. Costa Rica is on the go too.
New places around the world will develop at a great rhythm, since you now benefit from a myriad of specific tools to structure your work while you are on the go:
– Online CRMs like BaseCRM, Nimble or Insightly help you follow your sales pipeline from anywhere.
– Freelance assistants, found through people per hour or odesk, can manage your personal agenda or social media from anywhere on the planet, take care of your travel logistics or of the next massive commercial mailing.
– You can gather the contacts you accumulated in different social media through Full contact or IFFT.
– You can manage your TO DO list on To do ist or Any.do, share your new tasks with your team in Podio or Trello, write you last thought on Evernote and stock all your data in the cloud to share with your remote colleagues via Dropbox, Drive or Mega.
– And, obviously, you can communicate for free via Skype, Viber, Whatsapp or Facetime.
So what else do you need?
Probably mental flexibility.
As ideal as it seems, you need to be able to focused in cafes, trains or airport lounges. In hostels or on your friend’s sofa, next to the pool or in your country house.
Because, even if it seems perfect from the outside, it requires extreme adaptation skills to work at any time, from any place. A great sense of planning and anticipation.
And a great sense of discipline to know when to stop. When is it enough? And when do you have time to focus? To reflect, think back and get some perspective.
How do you put a limit? Set a boundary between your professional and your private life?
Is there even one? Or is everything blended now?
I haven’t felt being in holiday for a while. But I haven’t felt bored at work either.
Have we freed ourselves from the cubicle constraints to become slaves to ourselves?
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