5 reasons why you won’t last as a digital nomad

With tips to avoid these common pitfalls

Reason #1: You didn’t plan ahead

The basic premise of being a digital nomad is that you work while traveling (surprise, surprise).

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a first-time nomad is not planning around actually making money.

Some examples of things you can do in the planning phase:

Have a stable remote income source (or three)

Unless you’re working for one company or yourself, you should probably not rely on one client’s project as a sole income source.

If that client backs out, you’re left in the dust.

Making sure you have a stable source(s) of income while traveling is the most important thing you can do.

Don’t have one yet? Try job boards like We Work Remotely or Working Nomads. There are plenty others out there, plus you can always filter a normal job board for remote only.

Have a wifi plan

Because cafe-hopping in pursuit of internet should win the award for least fun activity while traveling.

If you need good wifi, have at least two solid options in case one doesn’t work out. This could be a co-working space or a mobile hotspot.

Set expectations

It almost goes without saying, but unless you work for yourself, make sure that your team/clients are OK with you being in a different time zone.

Tell your team/clients well in advance, and lay out a couple options around communication methods and meeting times.

Be prepared to be flexible, keeping in mind that what might work for you might not work for others.

Pro tip: It’s important to establish early on that you can maintain efficient and consistent communication while traveling.

Reason #2: You packed your entire wardrobe*

Cumulative stress from overpacking can wear you down as a nomad.

And I know you’ve heard it a thousand times already, but I’m gonna be your wise best friend and say it again: pack light!

Here are a couple more reasons why you should pack light, if you’re not entirely convinced:

Save time and money

If you don’t check a bag at the airport, you can breeze right through security, which is valuable when you’re running low on time.

Lower mental and physical stress

Dragging around heavy bags gets exhausting, real quick.

Without all the baggage, questions like ‘Will the suitcases fit in the tiny taxi?’ or ‘Is my bag over the weight limit?’ or ‘Where can I drop my bags when I arrive?’ suddenly become irrelevant.

Freedom

Imagine this: you just arrived in Florence, Italy.

You step out of the train station, and immediately feel the autumn breeze on your bare shoulders. The sun is just beginning to eclipse the Cypress trees on the distant hillside, while the scent of roasted tomatoes and garlic begins to radiate from every alleyway.

Your stomach begins to grumble, and then you realize you haven’t eaten since 11am.

You neeeeed to eat, like now. Plot twist: you can!

Because you only brought a backpack, you happily wander off along the cobblestone streets to find yourself a hearty Tuscan meal.

Pro tip: when you’re packing, if you find yourself packing something because you might wear it in that one specific occasion, just don’t. You won’t wear it.

*OK, maybe this is fine if your wardrobe consists of 3 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, and that sweater that you got for Christmas.

Reason #3: You travel too quickly

Once you’re free to roam the world, it’s easy to get carried away with trying to visit all the cities/countries on your list.

But let me break it to you: traveling takes a lot of mental overhead.

For every new location, you might have to find a pharmacy, learn how transportation works, find a decent place to get coffee, a grocery store, a place to workout, and generally adjust to the location.

On top of all that, you have to keep up with work.

That’s plenty to think about, at least for the initial week in a new location.

With that in mind, if your aim is to live truly sustainably as a nomad, the best thing you can do is travel as slowly as you’re comfortable with.

Not only is this strategy more manageable from a planning perspective, it’s also easier on your wallet and the environment.

Pro tip: If you only travel on the weekends, and give yourself two weeks in a specific location, you’re only giving yourself one travel-free weekend. Because of this, my advice is to aim for at least two, but preferably three weeks in one location.

Reason #4: You don’t have any financial padding

Things will inevitable go wrong during your trip. I can think of a couple not-so-imaginary scenarios:

Something happens with your flight, and you need additional nights at a hotel. Classic.

Your friends randomly invite you to South Korea while you’re staked out in Japan, and you can’t say no.

The train to the Rome airport shuts down, and you follow some random guy’s advice and buy bus tickets, then find out that the bus is going to take too long — and they don’t accept your tickets anyway — so you end up taking an expensive Uber all the way to the airport.

Your wallet gets stolen while you’re climbing Mount Fuji. Yes, this really happened.

You get to the airport to find out that your bag doesn’t meet the airline checked bag weight limit (another reason to pack light), so you end up having to pay the crazy fee.

You end up in Switzerland, where a hot dog is like $20 USD.

You’ll need financial padding to account for all these things, even if some of them are maybe a little bit your fault.

But that’s the beauty of traveling that you just have to accept: you never know what’s gonna hit you, both good and bad.

Pro tip: just don’t go to Switzerland unless you either a) have money flowing out of your earholes or b) want to live like a pauper.

Reason #5: You need a stable community

In the end, you might simply be the kind of person that prefers more stability in your life.

I mean, let’s be honest, it’s going to be tough to maintain consistent friendships and a sense of belonging when you’re moving around all the time.

If a physical community means a lot to you, you’ll need to work extra hard to build this in every location you visit.

But the bright side is that it is (somewhat) possible, and here are a couple ideas to send you on your way:

Join a remote co-working community like Hacker Paradise — you’ll get to hang out with new friends (and even meet up later in different parts of the world).

Travel really slowly — if you’re dedicated to feeling a sense of community while being nomadic, consider staying in once place for a couple months at a time. But don’t blame me if you end up deciding to live there.

Find a local group to join —now let me tell you about this thing called the internet. Whether you’re interested in language or yoga classes, or joining a volunteer group, it’s just a matter of finding the right people to contact. Not seeing much online? Talk to the locals! They might be able to give you some insider info.

That said, community takes time to develop. While these ideas may help for a short time, you may not find an apt substitute for the kind of community that you’re used to.

And that’s OK.

The important thing here is knowing what works best for you and being proactive about making that happen, nomad or not.