Remote work has grown in popularity in recent years. Employees enjoy the freedom to travel and explore while still earning a wage, and advances in modern technology make it easier than ever before for businesses to hire people for remote positions. If you work remotely and you want to start traveling, follow this guide to learn how to travel while working remotely.
How to travel while working remotely includes the following methods:
- Find remote work.
- Devise a work schedule.
- Research tax and immigration laws.
- Get set up with the necessary equipment.
- Consider your WiFi needs.
- Book the right accommodation.
- Stay in contact with colleagues and employers.
- Maintain a to-do list.
- Budget before traveling to a new destination.
- Visit places with a digital nomad community.
- Don’t stay too long or leave too quickly.
- Establish a home base.
- Look after your health.
- Enjoy yourself.
Working remotely can give you a sense of freedom and possibility. If you’re considering taking a remote position so you can start your travel adventures, keep reading to get your complete guide on how to work remotely while traveling.
1. Find Remote Work
The first step in starting your new digital nomad lifestyle is to find some remote work. There’s a lot of availability for remote work on a variety of job sites.
Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour have abundant remote freelance work positions for all skill sets and salaries.
Another common source for remote work while traveling is teaching English as a second language or ESL for short. You can obtain an online English teaching certificate to get started, then you can apply for online teaching positions.
You can also ask your employer about maintaining your current job from a remote position. This won’t be possible for everyone but many employers are now seeing the benefits of hiring staff for remote work.
Once you’ve found the remote work you desire, you can plan your travels according to your income and availability.
2. Devise a Work Schedule
When you don’t have to go to work every day physically, you can quickly lose track of your work if you don’t follow a schedule. That’s why you must devise a plan that fits your traveling lifestyle.
You may not want to work every day, or you may not want to work weekends or evenings. Whatever your preferences and plans are, make sure that you devise a work schedule that fits.
An effective work schedule won’t only help productivity but will also ensure that you can earn a regular income while traveling. A work schedule can prevent you from getting overwhelmed while you’re traveling and working.
3. Research Tax and Immigration Laws
Tax can be tricky to figure out when you’re working remotely. This is why you must research the tax laws of your home country and the countries you wish to travel to while working remotely.
If you owe taxes and you can’t pay, you may incur criminal charges.
Immigration laws are also a crucial aspect of traveling. You may have to obtain a work or business visa to travel to a country while working legally. If you don’t get the necessary permits and paperwork, you may end up being deported from the country you’re visiting or potentially imprisoned in a foreign country.
Neither of these scenarios will be enjoyable for you.
Some countries like Estonia offer specific visas for digital nomads, which makes working remotely and traveling very easy. Many countries are starting to implement similar rules that allow digital nomads to travel and live easily.
Wherever you want to travel, check out the immigration laws so you have the correct visa to prevent yourself from getting into avoidable trouble.
4. Get Set Up With the Necessary Equipment
Once you have figured out where you’re going and the visas and tax laws you need to know, you have to get set up. What I mean by getting set up is to make sure that you have the equipment that you need to work.
There are two main categories that you have to consider, including:
- Hardware refers to your laptops, webcams, tablets, and anything else that you need to work.
- Software refers to the computer systems, apps, and other programs you’ll need for your new remote job.
5. Consider Your WiFi Needs
One major factor to consider when you’re starting to work remotely is your WiFi needs. Some remote work requires enough WiFi to receive and send emails, while others require high-speed WiFi. Therefore if your job requires a good internet connection, a remote tropical island might not be a viable place to live.
This is why you should always research internet connections before traveling to a destination.
6. Book the Right Accommodation
Your accommodation makes a big difference when you’re working remotely and traveling. Depending on what work you’re doing, you may need larger living space. You might find it difficult, if not impossible, to teach English online if you’re living in a dorm at a hostel.
You may also want a space to work away from your bedroom. If this is the case a small hotel room won’t be suitable.
If your accommodation isn’t suitable to work in, you can search online for local workspaces. Here you’ll have to pay for a space to work, but many digital nomads use workspaces.
7. Stay in Contact With Colleagues and Employers
Working remotely can be challenging when you’re trying to stay in contact with colleagues or employers. There are numerous factors to consider when staying in touch, but perhaps the most important is the time difference.
If you’ve traveled to the other side of the world, you’ll be hours ahead or behind your employer.
This can lead to miscommunications which can lead to missed deadlines. If you miss your deadlines, you can get in trouble with your boss, which is never good.
The best way to ensure that you stay in touch with work is by regularly reaching out to colleagues and your employer. Regular contact makes staying on top of your work easy and convenient.
8. Maintain a To-Do List
Maintaining a to-do list is a great way to stay on top of what you need to do, and it will help you know what you need to do each day.
When you work in an office, you’ll have colleagues and your boss to help remind you what you need to do. However, when you work at home or remotely, you won’t have people reminding you what needs to be done.
Therefore a to-do list makes sense, which makes sure that you have a clear outlook on what you need to do and when. A to-do list will also help you to meet deadlines and boost productivity.
9. Budget Before Traveling to a New Destination
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when first starting traveling is budgeting. As a general rule, estimate how much money you’ll need and double it. If you plan on your remote work solely funding your travels, you’ll have to consider how much your cost of living will be while traveling.
For example, if you only have part-time remote work, you likely won’t be able to afford to live in a city like London or San Francisco.
Whereas if you live in southeast Asia, you can easily afford to live for a low price. Some countries in eastern and southern Europe are very affordable on a low wage.
10. Visit Places With a Digital Nomad Community
One of the biggest challenges travelers face is feeling homesick. But you can prevent this by looking for like-minded people. Visit locations that have a thriving ex-pat and digital nomad community, which can provide you with the opportunity to make lasting friends that you can rely on while away from home.
The majority of the people you meet while traveling will only be in your life for a few days. This is why you must make friends with local digital nomads or ex-pats to ensure that you establish lasting relationships.
11. Don’t Stay Too Long or Leave Too Quickly
It’s always tricky to know when to leave a place that you love.
Finding a community that you love and enjoy spending time with can be tough to leave. However, you can spend too long in a location and lose the desire to travel further.
On the other hand, you can move too quickly from place to place. Traveling too often can make working very difficult as you’ll be on the move constantly. When you’re not traveling, you’ll be busy seeing the local sites and landmarks.
It isn’t easy to know how much time to spend at each destination. It depends on how much time you have for traveling and how many places you want to see but make sure that you spend enough time in each area without staying too long.
12. Establish a Home Base
Many digital nomads establish a base for their travels, which is a city or town that you enjoy living in, but also easy access to other destinations.
More experienced digital nomads may have home bases in different parts of the world, which become their home while they travel to nearby countries. In fact, some travelers may have a home base in each continent or region that they travel to.
For example, you may establish Paris as a home base. Then you’ll travel and visit other parts of Europe. You may spend a week in Madrid or London, then return to your home base in Paris.
Not every traveler working remotely will want to establish a home base, as this isn’t an essential step. However, establishing a home base will make your life easier and can provide you with a home away from home where you can always come back to relax and unwind.
13. Look After Your Health
Looking after your health is important no matter where you live, but it’s essential while living in a foreign country. Medical care in foreign countries can be costly and depends on where you are in the world. Or, it can be poor or even nonexistent in developing nations.
It is always highly recommended that you obtain travel insurance to help cover potential problems abroad – from getting hurt to getting sick to needing emergency care. Many travel insurance companies now offer annual plans to cover you wherever you go.
The company we recommend is World Nomads.
In addition to buying insurance, looking after your health should be a priority.
Eating healthy and regular exercise is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You might even want to take time out from work to go for a run or even just a walk to stay active and healthy.
Also, eating unhealthy food and not exercising can hurt your emotional and mental health. This can lead to anxiety and depression, amongst other issues.
14. Enjoy Yourself
It’s easy to lose yourself while you’re busy working remotely, which can lead to you losing track of your purpose and why you choose traveling while working remotely in the first place. This is why you must take the time to get around the city you’re in and enjoy yourself.
One of the most significant aspects of traveling is meeting new and exciting people from around the world. You can’t meet new people if you spend too much time working.
That’s why you should devise a schedule that provides you with enough time to socialize.
Take some time off work to visit tourist attractions, go out for food, and spend time doing whatever you like to do. This ensures that you enjoy yourself and get the experiences that you are chasing by going traveling.
Final Thoughts
Traveling the world while working remotely is easier now than ever before. There are numerous apps and job sites that are explicitly designed to allow remote workers to find employment.
Once you have a job, it’s time to figure out where you’re going and how much you need to travel. Then it would be best if you devised a work schedule to stay on top of your work. After you have organized yourself, you’ll need to purchase the necessary equipment.
After completing this, it’s time for you to hit the road and start enjoying your new digital nomad lifestyle.
Sources
- Upwork: Homepage
- Fiverr.: Homepage
- Peopleperhour: Homepage
- Republic of Estonia E-Residency: Estonian Digital Nomad Visa | Eligibility & How to Apply
