Staying Healthy and Sane as a Digital Nomad

ABOUT STAYING HEALTHY AND SANE AS A DIGITAL NOMAD BY RECECCA BROWN

Life as a digital nomad can be incredibly freeing and rewarding. Working for yourself while travelling the world seems like the ultimate idyllic lifestyle for many people.

However, it doesn’t come without its challenges and it can be pretty difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle while on the road. Here are some of my best tips on staying healthy and sane as a digital nomad – and enjoying every minute of the ride.

How to avoid illness

Looking after your body and mind is absolutely imperative while on the road. While it can seem like one big adventure, it can also get quite tiring and exhausting if you constantly find yourself moving from one location to another.

One of the best ways to avoid illness as a digital nomad is to look after both your body and mind. In order to take care of your mental health and avoid feeling stressed and anxious, you should try and maintain a regular sleep schedule. With many different time zones and travelling on different modes of transport, you can easily become very wary. That’s why it’s imperative to get as much sleep as and when you can, and try to do it on a regular cycle.

You can also try taking up meditation – to help you soothe the mind, which can get quite out of control when you feel you are not meeting deadlines, working enough, or seeing enough of the world.

Keeping your body healthy can be slightly trickier. With working from an airport lounge or a poolside sun lounger, you may find it harder to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

It’s important however, that you do try and exercise and eat as well as possible. Simply getting up from your place of work and taking a short walk around for ten minutes can do the world of good for not only your body but for your mind too. You can also try taking up yoga (you’d be surprised where you can practice it!)

How to avoid boredom and loneliness

You may think that working as a digital nomad means that you’ll be galivanting around the world and constantly meeting new people. However, that isn’t always the case and you can sometimes suffer from boredom.

You won’t have those co-worker relationships where you can constantly bounce ideas off each other, and you may often find yourself working long into the evening in order to meet deadlines, alone at a desk.

In order to combat this, you should look for co-working spaces where you can set up for the day in a remote office where you can work with other digital nomads. This is great because you get the freedom of working by yourself and setting your own deadlines, but you also get to work in an environment surrounded by other people. You can meet those in the same line of work and exchange ideas, but even if not, you will still have the benefit of human contact.

Remember to relax

It can be so easy for digital nomads to get swept up in their work and forget to actually take regular breaks and to relax, especially when they have deadlines looming for a particular client.

It’s important to try and relax as much as possible however, otherwise you may find yourself starting to resent your lifestyle.

Try to stay as relaxed as possible by taking regular breaks to get snacks, or just to have a walk around. You could even take the whole day off ‘work’ and not do anything but enjoy the place that you’re in for a couple of hours. Remember that the entire point is to have the freedom to do things at your own pace, so don’t feel you need to be chained to a desk halfway across the world.

Take regular work-free breaks

One of the benefits of enjoying the digital nomad lifestyle is that you get the chance to explore the places that you’re working from.

While you may be working from a particular area, it can also be a good idea to take yourself to destinations where you might actually struggle to work efficiently. That way, travel will still remain a stress- and work-free habit, and you will never forget to enjoy it.

One of the best places to do this is Lapland. This idyllic winter wonderland offers a beautiful snow-covered retreat away from your working life and allows you to fully relax and enjoy your break. You are not likely to be tempted to work, and you will have gone somewhere sufficiently different to pique your own interest, and recharge your batteries.

When working as a digital nomad, it’s imperative to maintain a healthy, balanced and regular lifestyle. Failure to do so may result in you resenting your nomadic lifestyle and resorting back to your old way of life as a 9-5 office worker. And since that didn’t make you happy in the first place, odds are it won’t do so now.

Living as a digital nomad can be incredible, as long as you endeavour to stay healthy and sane by looking after your physical and mental health. Remember to take regular breaks while working and keep on top of your diet and exercise regimes so that your body is always in the best and healthiest condition possible.

GUEST POST ABOUT STAYING HEALTHY AND SANE AS A DIGITAL NOMAD BY RECECCA BROWN

Life as a digital nomad can be incredibly freeing and rewarding. Working for yourself while travelling the world seems like the ultimate idyllic lifestyle for many people.

However, it doesn’t come without its challenges and it can be pretty difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle while on the road. Here are some of my best tips on staying healthy and sane as a digital nomad – and enjoying every minute of the ride.

How to avoid illness

Looking after your body and mind is absolutely imperative while on the road. While it can seem like one big adventure, it can also get quite tiring and exhausting if you constantly find yourself moving from one location to another.

One of the best ways to avoid illness as a digital nomad is to look after both your body and mind. In order to take care of your mental health and avoid feeling stressed and anxious, you should try and maintain a regular sleep schedule. With many different time zones and travelling on different modes of transport, you can easily become very wary. That’s why it’s imperative to get as much sleep as and when you can, and try to do it on a regular cycle.

You can also try taking up meditation – to help you soothe the mind, which can get quite out of control when you feel you are not meeting deadlines, working enough, or seeing enough of the world.

Keeping your body healthy can be slightly trickier. With working from an airport lounge or a poolside sun lounger, you may find it harder to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

It’s important however, that you do try and exercise and eat as well as possible. Simply getting up from your place of work and taking a short walk around for ten minutes can do the world of good for not only your body, but for your mind too. You can also try taking up yoga (you’d be surprised where you can practice it!)

How to avoid boredom and loneliness

You may think that working as a digital nomad means that you’ll be galivanting around the world and constantly meeting new people. However, that isn’t always the case and you can sometimes suffer from boredom.

You won’t have those co-worker relationships where you can constantly bounce ideas off each other, and you may often find yourself working long into the evening in order to meet deadlines, alone at a desk.

In order to combat this, you should look for co-working spaces where you can set up for the day in a remote office where you can work with other digital nomads. This is great because you get the freedom of working by yourself and setting your own deadlines, but you also get to work in an environment surrounded by other people. You can meet those in the same line of work and exchange ideas, but even if not, you will still have the benefit of human contact.

Remember to relax

It can be so easy for digital nomads to get swept up in their work and forget to actually take regular breaks and to relax, especially when they have deadlines looming for a particular client.

It’s important to try and relax as much as possible however, otherwise you may find yourself starting to resent your lifestyle.

Try to stay as relaxed as possible by taking regular breaks to get snacks, or just to have a walk around. You could even take the whole day off ‘work’ and not do anything but enjoy the place that you’re in for a couple of hours. Remember that the entire point is to have the freedom to do things at your own pace, so don’t feel you need to be chained to a desk halfway across the world.

Take regular work-free breaks

One of the benefits of enjoying the digital nomad lifestyle is that you get the chance to explore the places that you’re working from.

While you may be working from a particular area, it can also be a good idea to take yourself to destinations where you might actually struggle to work efficiently. That way, travel will still remain a stress- and work-free habit, and you will never forget to enjoy it.

One of the best places to do this is Lapland. This idyllic winter wonderland offers a beautiful snow-covered retreat away from your working life and allows you to fully relax and enjoy your break. You are not likely to be tempted to work, and you will have gone somewhere sufficiently different to pique your own interest, and recharge your batteries.

When working as a digital nomad, it’s imperative to maintain a healthy, balanced and regular lifestyle. Failure to do so may result in you resenting your nomadic lifestyle and resorting back to your old way of life as a 9-5 office worker. And since that didn’t make you happy in the first place, odds are it won’t do so now.

Living as a digital nomad can be incredible, as long as you endeavour to stay healthy and sane by looking after your physical and mental health. Remember to take regular breaks while working and keep on top of your diet and exercise regimes so that your body is always in the best and healthiest condition possible.

About the Author

Becca is an interpreter by day and mostly travels at night, can fall asleep on any means of transportation, and can most often be found either typing in a Starbucks, or armed with a backpack, ready to take on the latest in a series of hikes. You can read more of her exploits at RoughDraft.