Becoming a digital nomad has the good and the bad. There will be times when you’ll need a specific item to move on, for example, a universal adapter, and you’ll feel stuck without it.
But don’t panic! In today’s video, Luis shares three things you cannot forget to include:
- Wi-Fi or 5G dangle
- Noise-canceling audio setup
- Calendar
Watch the video to find out more!
Luis:
What are the three things that you must have to be a digital nomad? Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Luis, your host for Virtual Coffee Chat with Luis. Let’s have some espresso. It’s hot. It’s hot, but tasty.
Let’s say you are, or you… Hi, Peach. This is my cat Peach. Say hi, Peach. Obviously, if you are a digital nomad, you don’t need to have a cat. In fact, traveling with cats is hard because they take about two weeks to adapt to new locations. And those are three very, very harrowing weeks. Let’s hope that Peach does not mess with the camera. Ladies and gentlemen, remote work. Let’s try this again.
So, I was going to tell you the three things that you need to be a digital nomad. One of those is most definitely a cat. Do not have cats, dogs, or any other pets if you plan on traveling around. It’s not great for them. So be responsible. If you’re a pet owner, be responsible, treat your furry friends with care and stay put. But if you do not have a pet, right, then there are three things that you need to be able to be a digital nomad.
Number one, it’s Wi-Fi or a 5G dongle. Don’t even think about being a digital nomad and working with cafe or hotel, or God forbid, Airbnb internet. It’s going to fail the minute you need it the most. So get in touch with an internet service provider. It could be yours, but does it need to be yours? I mean, if you’re going to be on the road, you might as well change and pick the one that provides the best wifi or 5G dongle that works internationally. And it could be expensive. It probably will be very expensive, but that’s the most important expense you can do for your job, for your career. And it should actually be tax deductible in most cases, because you just cannot rely on third-party internet. That’s number one.
Number two, you need a noise canceling audio setup. Yes, that’s right. Look, hopefully you’ll have a nice Airbnb or a nice hotel room or whatever, a nice place you’re renting where you can be reasonably isolated. But sometimes that’s not going to be the case, right? Sometimes you’re going to be needing to talk someone from an internet cafe or from someplace where there’s a reasonable degree, hopefully not much, but a reasonable degree of ambient noise. And that’s where a little bit like this makes all the difference. This is actually foldable, right? So I can put it on my backpack, but there are smaller versions available. And the great thing about a microphone like this is that actually, it’s a directional microphone. So whatever is happening on the other side of the screen, you will probably not hear it. Right? You get to hear a little bit of it, but it will be substantially muffled, right?
So that takes care of the in, but what about the output? Well, if it’s very noisy and I have headphones that don’t have noise cancellation, I’ll have a hard time listening to you. So head canceling microphones or earbuds… Head canceling, sorry. I don’t want my head counseled. No. Please do not cancel my head. Noise canceling. Noise canceling. So that’s number two, noise canceling audio setup.
So, what’s number three, you asked? Well, it’s a calendar because as a digital nomad, you’ll often have stuff. Hopefully, if you’re a true professional, you’re going to fit your life around your work, right? Because that’s what professionals do, but still you need a calendar. Well, in order number one, to fit the life, but also to accommodate the traveling, to just keep some discipline and some structure around your work day, because it’s really easy to just be distracted by some stuff that you really need to do, like watering the plants, or feeding the cat that came with the Airbnb and you committed to taking care of them, blah, blah, blah. It’s very easy to let stuff get in the way of work. So if you’re a digital nomad, you need to have a disciplined work style. You basically need to have a schedule. So that’s why the calendar is so important.
These were some pretty light tips. And I know that most of them sound common sense, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t follow them. So please make sure to do so, to follow them if you want to be successful as a digital nomad. And also something else that you could do is head to thinkremote.com and check out all the great material that we have about how to work remotely, more effectively. Thanks. This was Virtual Coffee Chat with Luis, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a nice day, everybody.
