Heading out on your first digital nomad adventure is incredibly exciting! It’s the chance to try something new, see the world, test your willpower, and enrich your life. Here is a checklist to make your life easier while being a digitalnomad.
You want to be smart about your location. You can approach this either by researching a destination that is already of interest to you or, if you are flexible on the location, just looking into “top digital nomad cities.”
When you’re planning to be gone for an extended amount of time, you really want to plan ahead for this and make sure you aren’t getting hit with additional fees as a result.
Once you know where you are going, make sure you get travel medical insurance. The last thing you want is to get sick in a foreign country and have to stress about cost of care. For peace of mind, we always recommend getting a travel medical policy.
One of the hardest things when you’re a digital nomad is getting into a routine to work. When you first start out, it can feel like you’re on vacation and so you have to retrain your brain to understand that you’re working and that starts by mapping out a schedule.
Always look up coworking spaces when working in a new city, although these also MUST have strong wifi alongwith accomodation—because we often just end up working there.
Who has ever travelled internationally before, only to receive a huge bill from your cell phone company? And it’s NOT cool. So, make sure you have a good system for making and receiving phone calls.
You can use free to download software and with good video quality. Screen-sharing is also really helpful when you can’t be in the same physical space with your team.
When it comes to packing, you can stick to a general theme – mostly black with a few pops of color, mostly neutrals, bohemian, etc. This way it’s easy to mix and match items to create different looks. The other thing you need to think about is how long you are planning to be gone for and if you will see a change in weather.
You can travel with a backpack, but when you have more gear, shift back to a suitcase with 4 wheel drive. You can select any color just make sure it’s light, and has an ejectable battery to recharge your electronics, wheels easily, and really maximixes space.
Before you leave, make sure someone back home has detailed information about where you are staying and how to get in touch. And let your loved ones know that you're alive and well.