How to Successfully Leave Home and Work From Anywhere
With so many jobs going full-time remote, many people are finding themselves working from home in perpetuity. Others are considering making a switch from an in-person position to one that can be done remotely.
While a virtual office can be much better than a traditional office setting, though, it can get tiresome working from your living space. Here are a few tips to help you shift to a remote employment lifestyle that can free you up to work from anywhere.
Get the Right Work
The first step in going full digital nomad with your work life is getting into the right line of work. If you’re working in a computer-heavy industry, like the tech sector, you likely already have the option to work remotely. If not, you can find a job in the same line of work that will accommodate your remote lifestyle request.
If you don’t work in a remote-friendly sector, you may have to leap to another industry. One of the easiest ways to do this is by freelancing. For instance, freelance writer can dictate their own schedule and compose text from virtually anywhere. A freelance career also can be tackled in stages, allowing you to try things out without quitting your day job until you’re ready for the change to a full-time schedule.
Get the Right Equipment
Equipment is key for a digital nomad. Every time you arrive at a coffee shop or coworking space, you need to bring your entire office with you. A few of the most common office equipment items include:
- A laptop with a decent size screen.
- An external monitor to give you more room to open windows.
- A mouse and mousepad if a trackpad slows you down.
- Headphones to help you control your audible surroundings.
- Chargers for all of your electronic devices.
- A snack or two just in case you find yourself in a location without food.
- Your phone, wallet, and other personal items.
Having the right equipment is essential to digital nomad success. If you don’t have everything on hand in your work bag, your productivity is going to suffer.
Get a Capable, Dependable Phone
Along with the staples listed above, you also want to invest in a really good phone. This doesn’t have to be a fancy or expensive model, but it should have a couple of core features, such as a big screen. Many modern activities can be done on a phone without ever needing to set up your laptop, from writing to communication to running a blog.
In addition, make sure that your phone has Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities. Internet is the backbone of remote work. If you don’t have an internet connection, you might as well not have a job. Having a fallback option to help you connect to the cloud can be a lifesaver when you’re in an area with an unsafe or unstable internet connection.
Stay Organized
Just because your digital nomad life feels small and compact doesn’t mean it will stay organized. On the contrary, it’s easy to suffer from both physical and digital disorganization when you work on the move.
On the physical side of the leger, there are two concerns. First, it’s important to create a checklist to ensure that everything that you need for your work is in your bag. Chargers, headphones, mousepads, and even eye drops for the occasional case of dry eye are all helpful.
On the digital side of things, it’s far too easy to become scattered when your work-life exists entirely on the cloud. As you move between projects, applications, and websites, you can lose track of important things. Make sure to use a site like Trello to keep your responsibilities and workflow in order and a storage option like Google Drive to keep important files in an easy-to-find location.
Set Up Emotional Safeguards
One of the biggest challenges of remote work is staying calm and collected over time. It’s easy to feel isolated, alone, and anxious when stressful times set in and you don’t have a larger professional community nearby to lean on.
Fortunately, there are several ways that you can protect yourself emotionally, such as:
- Eating well and drinking plenty of water.
- Getting consistent exercise — consider a universal gym pass that can travel with you.
- Using a CBD supplement to calm nerves and jitters.
- Embracing the creative hum of a coffee shop to boost your positivity and creativity.
By guarding your emotions, you can ensure that every day is calm and productive, no matter where you’re working.
Successfully Working Abroad
Remote work is the future, but that doesn’t mean you have to be tethered to your home office. On the contrary, if you set the stage beforehand, you can be very successful working on the road. If you can line up the right work, get the best equipment, stay organized, and guard your emotions, it’s perfectly possible to find a new sense of professional purpose and passion by taking your career out on the road as a digital nomad.