Travel + Work — A Failed Experiment (2014 edition)

Why traveling and working didn’t work out for me, the reasons behind and how to continue.

6 Months Traveling and Working

Since end of November 2013 I put myself into the position of working while traveling. It all sounds like a peanut butter or a piece of cake. At the end of April 2014 I found out for myself that it’s not even an little piece of cake. Here’s why:

You are barely or never in the moment. Nothing is worse and more frustrating, especially for fellow travelers, to have one person not paying attention. Because when you work on a project while you are geographically at the beach in the Philippines, you won’t be able to cope with both things — enjoying / relaxing and working — if you don’t keep them separated.

Don’t be rushy while you travel and work. Make sure you can stay in one place for a while, a week or so, so you can adjust and build up a little routine for your working hours.

It’s not healthy and prevents you, the by default distracted person, to stay sane when you think about projects (work) while you are at the most beautiful places in the world.

Conclusion

Clearly distinguish work and travel. You can work for 6 months, and travel for the other 6. You can travel for 3 months and work for 9 months. Or you can just work your way all the way through 2, 3, 4 or 5 years while you take your little breaks every three months or get 1 year off every 7 years like Stefan Sagmeister (from Sagmeisterwalsh) does.

But you don’t wanna merge both — just like a distinction of work and personal leisure time is crucial. Things will merge into each other anyway. Your effort must be put into reducing it [the merging process] to a sane level.

PS: This is old old standpoint of mine which I wrote (on May 6, 2014) because I also had a project that didn’t work out well while traveling. So I was double-frustrated about the unsuccessful project and me not being able to be mentally there with my travel partner. Right now, I found a way that works for me.

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Is Being A Digital Nomad A Lie?

Hacker News: Is Being a Digital Nomad a Lie?

Hacker News: Is Being a Digital Nomad a Lie?

Pretext: Only if you believe (in) it, it can become a lie (that affects you). If you don’t mind and let it pass — like you do with a lot of things in life because you can’t save everything and everyone from the sickness of this world — then the discussion / trend / hype of being a Digital Nomad will only be a side-topic or not a topic at all — like bad commercials.

However, if you feel called by the term because you sense that it could be related to what you’re doing, you’re wanting to do it or dream of doing it, here’s my view and more extensive response than my initial comment on Facebook, a kind-of response to what Yann Girard initially wrote under the title „The digital nomad lie“ (originally found on Facebook).

Remote or location-independent

From my perception and conversations with people who apply this kind of lifestyle (fully or partly) the term „Digital Nomad“ is something they don’t like that much. To be a „Remote Worker“ comes closer to what identifies them, and I personally like being called „remote worker“ (working location-independent like that most of the time since 2008) more than being a nomad because it sounds more down to earth.

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