1 month of Digital Nomad: my opinion!

At Digidop, Webflow agency, we are a 100% remote company. And we also give, to all the team, the possibility to be Digital Nomad. And during our recruitment interviews the request is more and more frequent.

Can I work from anywhere in the world?

So, in order to fully understand the emotions and issues around this lifestyle "the Digital Nomad life".... I decided to live the experience and become Digital Nomad for 1 month👨🏼💻🌎!

In September 2022, I worked in 4 different cities and 2 different countries. My hours were asynchronous with the rest of the team (GMT-6 / GMT-7 🇺🇸🇨🇦).

The objective was to understand this lifestyle, combining work and travel, and to be able to advise/help future team members in this situation.

Here is my feedback!

Digital Nomad vs Asynchronous

First of all, I would like to dissociate two terms and two modes of operation often assimilated and yet very different. The Digital Nomad mode VERSUS the asynchronous remote work mode .

Here is my personal definition of the terms, to conceptualize my point;

Digital Nomad: He/she moves very often and stays only a short time in the same city or country.

Asynchronous remote work: Method of work where the team member works wherever he/she wants in the world, regardless of the time flare. He/she does not necessarily move, and can stay (be sedentary) in a city/region/country for several months or years.

In the first part of this article I will only talk about the advantages and limits of the digital nomad lifestyle, which is the subject of the article. Then, in a second part, I will give you my opinion about the "sedentary" work in asynchronous remote.

Digital Nomad: the pluses and minuses

I'm going to deal with the subject in a synthetic way. There are pros and cons to combining work and travel. It is therefore very important to know yourself, and the lifestyle you want.

Here are my Digital Nomad destinations:

• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Niagara Falls, Ontario
• Toronto, Canada

The benefits of the Digital Nomad experience

• The discovery of new cultures and the exchanges with visions different from mine, are very enriching
• It is much easier to create new habits in a new environment
• A certain energy emerges from the "adventure
• Learning new languages

The limits of the digital Nomad:

• My primary need: a race to the wifi
• The time it takes for my brain to associate a new place with a place of deep concentration #StateOfFlow
• Travelling is costly in energy (the fatigue linked to each trip: comparing hotels, hostels, transport, etc.)
• No sooner does a "good habit" begin to take hold than it is broken.

Working asynchronously in Florida

My destination: Orlando, Florida

I'm a fan. Working in asynchronous remote has, from an operational standpoint, had NO negative impact on Digidop.

• The projects continued to come out,
• Customers have continued to be satisfied,
• I was able to communicate seamlessly with the entire team using technologies like Loom, Slack and Google Meet

And I was able to build my daily habits. Food, sports, reading, etc...

The only "limitation" I have felt is that I am a morning person. I love waking up early, and tackling all of my "hard tasks" for the day at that time. It is during this part of the day that I am at my best and most efficient. In France, I rarely (if ever) take a client and/or partner call in the morning to focus on what we call "deep work".

In Florida, I was on a GMT -6. In order to ensure the training and the follow-up of customer projects, I had to plan these exchanges on my morning (afternoon in France). I had to change my habits and adapt.

But I'm still a morning person, and when I next leave, I'll go even further in organizing my schedule to find the most productive balance.

My opinion on the experience

To conclude (⚠️ this is just my opinion on the experience, it is based solely on my personal preferences and lifestyle);

Asynchronous remote work works very well, you just have to be careful about organizing your schedule with different time zones, in case you need to have live calls with clients. Because in reality, many calls can be replaced by Loom recordings.

I'm not a fan of the digital nomad mode, which I find time and energy consuming.

I like to settle in one place for several months. At least to create my work habits and gain productivity. Once I'm comfortable in my environment, I can push myself every day and focus on my job to achieve my goals. Having my own space, with a good wifi, my hobbies nearby is a lifestyle that suits me better.

So yes, I would work again in other countries. This lifestyle allows me to combine discovery, travel and work. It also allows me to work in the cultural environment that I enjoy the most. But, I would stay in these countries, at least several months (6 months?)

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Question?

If you have a question about this experience, you can ask me directly on Linkedin

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