If you are a digital nomad or are considering working on the road for any considerable period of time this post is for you. Many of these could also work for those traveling and working internationally as well. My family and I recently spent 14 months traveling the United States in an RV and these are some of the things and processes that helped me work and run a business while on the road.

Planning and Preparation

Choosing your Mode of Travel

One of the first things to look at when considering the digital nomad life is to plan out how you will travel. This is going to depend largely on your priorities and your budget. For us, it was important to take home with us since we would be traveling with our son and our dog. We had done enough traveling to Airbnb’s and hotels to know the work that would go into packing and unpacking and potentially leaving things behind. We also wanted to have some comforts of home while traveling. Another important thing for us was seeing as much of the country as possible. Having an RV allowed us move around easily while also having the comforts we craved. This could look like a van or a bus for you, depending on who you’re traveling with and how much space you need. When we added up the cost of staying in Airbnb’s or hotels it also came in higher than the cost of the RV plus campgrounds.

Workspace Setup

Once you’ve decided on your mode of travel, or even simultaneously while you’re making that decision, you’ll need to think about your workplace setup. Will you have a dedicated space to work in? If you’re going to be staying in Airbnb’s will they have a space for you to comfortably work? If you’re traveling with multiple people will you have room to find a quiet workspace? If you’re planning to work in co-working spaces or coffee shops, make sure you factor that in to the locations you’re visiting. When we were looking at RV’s we knew that I needed to have a space to work in anytime and it needed to be separated from the family so that our 5 year old son wouldn’t be tempted to interrupt me. With that information in mind we looked at dozens of RV layouts and decided on one that had the bedroom and bathroom on one side and the living area on the other side. The bathroom was in between the bedroom and the living space so that it could be accessed from either side. This allowed me to work in the bedroom while my family hung out in the living space.

Equipment and Supplies

Typically when you’re traveling and working you’re not going to be able to take your 27″ double monitors everywhere with you (although I have seen some pretty amazing work setups in RV’s and vans 😮) so you’ll need to determine what work setup you’ll need and portable it needs to be. For me that looked like my MacBook Pro, an Ipad and the Xebec Tri-Screen 2. I carried those as well as portable chargers, WiFi and power backups in my backpack. This allowed me to keep all of my work items in one place as well as have it super portable if I wanted to work at co-working space or coffee shop. It also still allowed me to have multiple screens while not being too big.

Staying Connected

Internet Connectivity

Internet was an area we put a ton of research into before we left because we knew we would be in some remote areas. Even if you’re going to be staying in Airbnb’s that claim to have good internet you may want to bring a portable Wifi option with you just in case. We decided on an ATT mobile hotspot as our primary source of internet with a Starlink as our secondary. This worked out well because in most spaces we had enough of a connection to ATT that we didn’t have to take out the Starlink but it was always there if we needed it. We also increased the hotspot allowance on our phones in case either of those two didn’t work. For connectivity you can never have too many backups!

Getting Your Mail

This was another one that took a lot of research because it was important that I still be able to receive mail for my business. IRS notices are typically only sent by mail (although I wish they would go more electronic). We considered having it sent to a family member but we didn’t want to rely on them to scan everything in and didn’t want to worry about it getting mixed up with their mail. We ultimately decided on a virtual mailbox. This is actually a physical location where your mail gets sent and then they take pictures of the front of the envelopes. You then tell them which ones to open and scan and which ones to recycle. They will also shred items for an additional fee. This worked out perfect and is honestly a service I may keep forever even when we’re not traveling so that I never have to go through mail again! There are quite a few services like this but we went with Anytime Mailbox and were happy with the service. It starts around $15 per month and goes up depending on how much mail you get.

Time Management

Creating a Schedule

Creating a schedule was honestly one of our biggest areas of struggle in the beginning of the trip. We wanted to see as much as possible and thought a full year would be enough to do that and work. We quickly learned that we were moving too fast and not leaving enough room for work, sightseeing and downtime. So we switched from moving every 5-7 days to moving every 10-12 days. We had to remove some stops to accomplish this but it was worth it to make the trip more sustainable. This allowed me to have a full work week and still leave a couple days to check out the surrounding area. I kept a dry erase calendar on our fridge that showed moving days, our location each day and work days so that everyone in the family knew what was happening when.

Productivity Tools

There are so many productivity tools available that it can be overwhelming and distracting but I’ll share a couple that worked for me. One that I love and still use now is Motion. It’s a digital calendar that allows you to set schedules for work and personal calendars. Once you have your hours set you enter the tasks you want to accomplish, how long each one will take, when it needs to be done by, which schedule it should be done on and what priority level it is. The calendar is then filled in according to these parameters. If an emergency or a new appointment comes up the task are automatically updated to fit the new schedule. Motion integrates with your Google calendar and others so that all of your appointments automatically flow through. It will also let you know when there’s not enough room in the schedule for the tasks you’ve added. You can then decide if you need to work more to fit it in or if something can be extended to a longer deadline.

The other productivity tool that I love is a Pomodoro timer. A Pomodoro timer is really a method of working where you set a focus time, say 30 minutes to an hour, and then you set a break time, say 5 to 15 minutes. You repeat this process throughout the day until your workday is done. This has helped me greatly with avoiding distractions because instead of sitting down to work for an undetermined amount of time, I know that I am going to focus on a certain thing for this period and then take a break.

Setting Boundaries

When you’re traveling and working for an extended period of time it’s easy for you or your family members to treat it like a vacation. To avoid that from happening it’s important to set a work schedule and amount of hours you want to work each week. This is where having it on a calendar is good, especially one you can see everyday so that you know what to plan for each day and you know when leisure times are. If you’re traveling with kids it’s even more important to have a somewhat of a routine so that they know what to expect. Let you family members know that, when you go to work, you’re off limits unless it’s for an emergency. This is also where a co-working space or coffee shop can come in handy, just remember to make sure you’re setting your travel spots near one or the other when planning the trip.

Flexibility

While it’s important to establish a routine and work times, there also has to be room for flexibility. Things come up while traveling just like they do in day to day life. People get sick or weather may ruin your sightseeing plans for the day. Having more days in each location helps with being able to rearrange schedules. If the weather ruins your plans can you turn that into a work day and turn a work day into a sightseeing day? Also, while planning and booking your spots, can you find ones that have a flexible cancellation or change policy? Building in extra days and cancellation options can help with keeping you flexible.

Staying Healthy and Motivated

Exercise and Wellness

We all know it’s important to eat healthy and exercise but even when you’re not traveling it can be hard to do. Making sure that these things are a priority while traveling requires some planning ahead and a bit of flexibility. If you’re someone who needs a set amount of time to workout each day you may want to structure your travel days around that schedule if you can. Ideally though, you can fit in exercise in your day to day life. Take walks or runs around the campgrounds or neighborhoods, go for a swim in a local lake or ocean, head out for a hike, etc. As far as eating healthy, the best thing you can do is try not to eat out too much. This can be difficult if you love food and trying new restaurants as much as we do. We tried to limit eating out to one to two spots per stop and we tried to make them healthy restaurants when we could. We have a list about a mile long of places we’d love to try if we’re ever in the area again. Outside of that we just tried to cook as much as possible. Either in the rv, over a campfire, or an an outdoor griddle or grill. Exploring the different grocery stores and farmer’s markets in each area made it fun to come up with new recipes.

Community and Networking

The final thing I’ll touch on is having a community you can talk to while traveling. Part of the fun of traveling is getting to meet new people and, in some cases, develop lifelong friendships. But it also can mean making connections with people, only for you or them to be on your way the next day. So it’s important to have contact with your core group, whether that’s friends and family or maybe an online group of fellow travelers. Make time in each day to connect with those back home and maybe even have some of them meet you in your travels. We had some family members that were able to fly out to a couple different locations and it was fun to have them share in the adventure and see what life on the road was like. We also got to people we don’t see very often because we were traveling through their area and were able to stop by.

This was a bit longer blog post but there was so much we learned on this trip that I wanted to share. We are now back in a “sticks and bricks” home, as travelers like to refer to home base, and we are happy to be on a bit slower schedule and to have a more stable routine. Traveling full time was an amazing season of life and I’m sure that we will continue to incorporate travel into our lives. But for now, we’re content to be in one place as we get our son started in school and transition to a different season. If you have any questions about traveling while working please don’t hesitate to reach out at hello@infinitycpasolutions.com.