Fed up with the morning screech of the London tube? Hate the rat race rush to your 9-5 office job? Sick of faking a smile till the weekend? 

There comes a point in everyone’s life when you must say enough’s enough and make a decision – settle for a safe, comfortable existence or risk it, in the search for true happiness and adventure. For me there was no choice, my commute was draining, my boss terrifying, and my empty reserves of motivation made a warning light sound loudly in my head. Time to take the foot off the pedal and look in another direction.

Fast forward 3 months and I am travelling Europe, working in my mobile 4-wheeled office just 20 meters away from the beach, idyllic as it sounds it’s not all sunsets and promotions in paradise.

With this in mind, here is a complete guide to becoming a digital nomad.

First off, What is a Digital Nomad

Using a remote working job to fund their travels, digital nomads live the nomadic way of life by travelling from location to location using technology to stay online and work from anywhere in the world!

Most Common Jobs for a Digital Nomad

Any remote working job allows you to adopt this career path. Many chose to look for freelance work for the added flexibility of being self-employed however many companies in 2022 are now open to adapting roles to suit this lifestyle.

Freelancers can get started by advertising their services on Fiver or Upwork or self-promoting over LinkedIn messaging.

If you want to be employed by a company, then a good place to search for remote working jobs is on WeWorkRemotely and Remote.co.

What type of job do you need to be a Digital Nomad: 

• IT
• Marketing
• Editing
• Customer Service
• Design
• Writing
• Recruiting & HR
• Virtual Assistant

Digital Nomad Visa Schemes 

Here is a list of countries currently offering the most attractive Digital Nomad Schemes for obtaining remote working visas:

• Anguilla
• Antigua & Barbuda
• Aruba
• Australia
• Barbados
• Bali
• Bermuda
• Cayman Islands
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Czechia
• Dubai

• Estonia
• Georgia
• Germany
• Iceland
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Monsterrat
• Norway (Svalbard)
• Portugal
• Spain

I have found these countries offer some of the best incentives for visiting them as a Digital Nomad, with many visas lasting 60-90 days. Bali in particular is a destination to shortlist as it is launching a 5-year tax-free Digital Nomad Scheme in 2022. 

What happens at the end of the time limit on my remote working visa? 

You must apply for a long-term visa or exit the country and try the ‘Visa Run’ solution!

The ‘Visa Run’ is a trick Digital Nomads use once they reach the max number of days on a remote working visa. It involves exiting the country and receiving an exit stamp on your passport. Once you leave the country for a day and then return, the time limit on the visa will automatically reset.

Challenges of being a Digital Nomad?

Although the pictures fuel the fantasy that being a digital nomad is a stress-free life of beach trips and sun-soaked lunchbreaks, the reality is slightly different:

 Wandering for Wi-Fi – For one, your job security is directly linked to your Wi-Fi connection, even with the best Wi-Fi enhancing gadgets and gismos invented is a serious consideration before leaving the office for good. I have had to leave countless dreamlike spots in the hunt for those flighty 3 bars, a pursuit which often led to a dark hotel room.

Work Plans don’t mix with Salt and Sand – Unfortunately, laptops and beaches really don’t get along, and working from the shoreline can often lead to tech issues. We all get slower in the heat and your laptop does too, so be sure to be extra careful with where and when you use your laptop, the sun can overheat your laptop, the sand gets everywhere, and the salt can damage the keys and screen in no time at all. Live by the eternal words of Radiohead and keep all work items ‘High and Dry’ and you will be fine!

Pathetic work ethic – At first, your head cannot seem to separate work from play. Balancing projects, deadlines, and teams when the relaxation of the beach is just metres away builds a niggling urge to shut the laptop, but don’t give in! Remember you are building a lifestyle not going on a holiday, it takes time to acclimatise to an ever-shifting working environment and even longer to cope with balancing deadlines in soaring temperatures, but like all worthwhile things in life, the rewards come through time and regular practice.

Don’t be overzealous they’ll get jealous – When you set off for this adventure it is vital you have the right attitude toward your colleagues. Sadly, in my experience, it is best to avoid the subject altogether, as mentioning your wonderful travels often brings about an inescapable jealousy with fellow employees.

The more you boast the closer they will monitor your workflow, deadlines, and communications, so aim to impress and brag slightly less, especially when you are first starting out.

If you are self-employed, hats off to you, boast away! Fill up our Instagram feeds – you’ve earned it!

Benefits of being a Digital Nomad

Travelling the World for Free – The obvious benefit is the immediate serotonin boost of switching leaving the stagnant office lifestyle for a free-flowing career that completely funds your travels. Working remotely has let me experience all the benefits of travelling without breaking the bank. Embrace new cultures, meet new and amazing people, and live the nomad way of life for a sense of freedom that cannot be found in many other career paths.

Quality of life – Financially you may find that you are better off on the road than at home. You can retain the high UK-based salary but minus the obscene cost of living that now plagues our green and pleasant land. If you travel to the more wallet-friendly areas of the globe you will be able to achieve an amazing quality of life for a little under £1,000 per month. The income stream from home provides an extra level of financial freedom and with countries offering free work visas and tax-free digital nomad incentives you may be surprised at how comfortably you can live abroad.

Plus, when the time comes to take your annual leave, you are likely far closer to your dream destination than you were in your office in Croydon.  

Lose comfort and find innovation –  Back home, most are tempted into a cushty existence by a healthy salary and the poisoned carrot of a potential promotion. However, escape this cycle, and you dive headfirst into the unknown, you meet like-minded people and start to think outside of the box. In this uncomforting, unfamiliar process you open yourself up to a fresh perspective on what a career should be. For me, a career should facilitate happiness not trap you in stress. Stepping outside of the 9-5 gives you time to think, generate new ideas, and the freedom to redefine your career on your own terms.

How to overcome the challenges of Digital Nomad life?

Now you’ve had a chance to weigh up the pros and cons of this lifestyle, let’s explore ways you can overcome its barriers and set you off on a career adventure of a lifetime!

How do you get reliable Wi-Fi as a Digital Nomad?

Alright, this is likely the biggest barrier to becoming a Digital Nomad as with no WIFI your job security goes flying out the window. So, how do you get Wi-Fi from anywhere in the world?

Ethernet Cable – This is, without doubt, the best tool for ensuring a stable connection. Sometimes relying on a wireless Wi-Fi connection is an impossible task; you can buy expensive Wi-Fi extensions and top of the range routers but sometimes all you have to do is plug in. Your speeds will increase, your ping will reduce, and you will breathe a sigh of relief when you see how stable your connection becomes.

Starlink is going to be a game changer for Digital Nomads. Where once we would huddle in crowded bars, dingey hotel rooms, and sandy beach bars for a glimpse of a Wi-Fi bar, we will now be able to access Satellite internet coverage across 36 countries.

Wi-Fi Extenders – This little wall plug supposedly takes existing Wi-Fi signals and, as the name suggests, extends them. When I lived on a mountainside in Crete, we relied heavily on Wi-Fi extenders. They provided an inconsistent internet connection that is occasionally great for day-to-day internet navigation but as a reliable tool for ensuring Wi-Fi on business calls, meetings, or online teaching it falls slightly short of the mark.

Mobile Hotspots – At times, Wi-Fi and ethernet cables will fail, and when they do you should always have a backup plan, and mobile hotspots should be that saving grace. I always have a local SIM with a high data plan that supports tethering/hotspot function, this serves as my last resort backup plan, and knowing it is there reduces my panic when technology inevitably fails you. 

TOP WI-FI TIP – When you are a remote worker you will be constantly connecting to Wi-Fi networks in all sorts of places. This puts personal data such as banking information, emails, and personal messages at risk of being leaked. So how do you keep your data safe as a Digital Nomad? Get a VPN. Reliable Virtual Private Networks (VPN) hide your online IP Address, so your data remains protected. A reliable one I use is NordVPN. People often worry about their physical belongings being stolen but your online information is just as important if not more.

They do, but in terms of security on a public WiFi network, the main benefit is that provide encryption of your traffic, preventing others from snooping on your browsing – might be worthwhile putting this in too!

How stay productive at work as a Digital Nomad? 

We all know beaches and a driven worth ethic don’t go hand in hand, in fact, if you meet a remote worker who says they have never wanted to slam the laptop and jump in the ocean they are a liar.

Now I’m not going to pretend to be some productive mindfulness guru, but after talking to a few Nomads who shared similar issues I’ve got a couple of techniques that help you remain productive in paradise. 

Time Management – If, like me, you swap multitasking with procrastination, then this technique is designed specifically to help you. The concept is simple, break up each hour or so of your day to have a specific focus and stick to it. Apps like Clockify track your time spent on each task, allowing you to work your way through that long ‘to-do’ list with ease.

Stay Cool – Heat is draining across the globe, so don’t try and tan while on the job. Stay out of the sun and be on the constant lookout for workspaces with the dream duo, fast Wi-Fi, and air conditioning. 

Drown out the noise – Often Digital Nomads don’t get the luxury of quiet as we are forced to work in busy coworking spaces, buses, flights, and beach bars. Investing in some high-quality noise cancelling headphones such as the Bose QuietComfort can keep you focussed in the loudest environments and are definitely worth the purchase.

Time Travel – Time zone differences often are a killer for the Digital Nomad, resulting in 3 am meetings and floods of unanswered emails. Be sure to use a time zone converter to work out what working times are most efficient for you and your company.

Closing the Laptop – Sometimes working flexible hours quickly turns into regular overtime. You are taking on this career adventure for a better quality of life, so don’t forget to actually go and live it. The work-life balance is the key to being a successfully fulfilled Digital Nomad. Be sure to keep experiencing new cultures, exploring new places, and meeting new people, even though your emails are likely to pop up while you are out adventuring, your business won’t crumble if you don’t read them right away.

Ironically, for a lifestyle driven by escaping stress, you will often have moments where frustration builds in the heat. However, eventually, you will adapt to momentarily filter out the beauty of your surroundings and dial in on the screen the game, and once you perfect it, you unlock a lifetime of travel, wealth, and a lucky escape from the typical 9-5 that traps so many of us!

Like every path in life, there are skills and attitudes you must learn, but once you find your rhythm in this lifestyle it is one of the most rewarding and freeing approaches you can have to a career.