How To Live Your Best Life As A Digital Nomad

Travelling is an exciting activity and a passion for many. And it only gets better if you get to do it as you’re working! Enter the life of a digital nomad — one who works online full-time while they travel the world.

While vacationing allows you to enjoy a destination as you are, travelling as a digital nomad means being a long-term visitor to a foreign land. Which means having to constantly adapt. As the adage goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

Being a digital nomad also usually means that you’ll be looking for affordable accommodation wherever you go. Suffice to say, you’ll need to forget about expensive hotels and forgo the total privacy that hotels and motels offer. Instead, you’ll be looking at a life likely staying in dorms or co-living units. Such accommodations are shared by a number of people, so you’ll need to be considerate of your co-living neighbours in order to live your best life and succeed as a digital nomad. Here’s how:

Friendly communication is key

You may love travelling, but you may not necessarily like people too if you’re an introvert. There are also some who are extroverts and want to travel the world, and all is well until you start living with strangers whom you may or may not get along with. But a little communication goes a long way.

Once you start communicating with people, they’ll find it much easier to trust you. You’ll find that once you start talking to people, they’ll automatically come forward to help you out with a lot of things — like your daily chores or problems that you might face. You don’t need to indulge in long conversations all the time to get the friendly vibe across. Simply take the first step to say hi and ask how their day went.

Help out fellow travellers

On that note, helping other people out brings about a lot of goodwill, besides also making you feel nice about yourself as a person. It instils a sense of positivity and helps make bonds stronger.

When you see a housemate in a situation where they need some assitance, never shy away from helping if you can. Who knows? It could even lead to amazing bonds and friendships that you build throughout your amazing time as a digital nomad. Plus, favours can always come in handy in future.

Learn to adjust and improvise

When living abroad, things might not always go according to your plans, and you might have to take a different route or approach to get what you want. This will involve you being innovative, adaptable, and friendly. Without having such attributes you’ll find it very hard to adjust to sharing a space, such as co-living spaces in Singapore. Your comfort can always wait. Oh, and try to stay out of trouble. Don’t get irritated too quickly and give peace a chance.

Respect others and their privacy

Travelling around the world and living a nomadic life will mean that you’ll come across people from all walks of life and various cultures/backgrounds. Learn not to judge and always respect everyone around you. No person is big or small, especially if you’re all living under the same roof. Apart from simply respecting people with their choices, you also need to respect their privacy.

Hygiene and cleanliness

No matter where you go in the world and what you do you, cleanliness is of utmost importance. No one wants to be around a neighbour or housemate who doesn’t clean up after themselves. For instance, people sometimes have a habit of leaving their dirty clothes here and there, but that can become very irritating for others.

So make sure you keep your belongings where they’re supposed to be and not scatter them across communal spaces. Wash the utensils you use and keep your shoes neatly on the shoe rack. Make a habit out of such things as they count as basic etiquette.

Needless to say, personal hygiene is equally as important. There’s no use in wearing clean clothes everyday if you yourself aren’t also clean.

Limit phone usage

Using your phone around people can become irritating for two reasons — you/it is too lour or you’re constantly on it. While living in a shared accommodation, you need to keep a few things in check when it comes to phone use. For instance, always keep your phone on silent. The constant ringing of message alerts and calls can easily get the blood pressure of others going. Talking loudly is also looked down upon and so is watching videos without wearing earphones.

On the other hand, if you’re having a conversation with someone in your shared space or dining with them, give them the attention they deserve. Put that phone aside and make connections with real people. After all, isn’t that one of the reasons why you became a digital nomad? To learn and experience more?

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