My Daily Routine as a “Digital Nomad”
Expectations vs. Reality
Before I quit my job last June, I fantasized about the immense freedom I would have. I would be jobless. Jobless and happy!
However I wanted to make my 1-year mini retirement a fruitful one. Under my own rules, I wanted to learn how to make good habits and be as productive as possible.
I thought to myself: I work with intense discipline 9+ hours every day for my current job. Imagine what I could do if I spent every day investing those precious hours in myself? Imagine what could be done! Financial freedom and forever independence here I come!
I became fascinated with the idea of how I could customize my days…And I wondered how the other self-employed or “digital nomads” chose to do it.
Attempting to Google that very thing, I was surprised when I found not much more than the typical “How these 10 billionaires structure their days” articles. All of which I exit out of immediately when I see the words “5 AM Workout.” These people have a sickness…!
Thus I am inspired to share my amateurish routines, both the expectations (which I clearly had for myself) and the reality, after being self-responsible for several months.
Daily Routine Expectations:
I literally wrote this in my journal in May 2021, when I hadn’t even quit my job yet but knew I would be in this position now. These were my schedule goals:
8:00 AM — 9:00 AM Listen to an audiobook and do some housecleaning
9:00 AM — 9:15 AM Meditate and stretch
9:15 AM — 12:00 PM Work on my ecommerce business (product research, marketing, etc.)
12:00 PM — 1:00 PM Make lunch and take a break
1:00 PM — 2:00 PM General research and learning about new income streams/opportunities
2:00 PM — 2:15 PM Sketch in my sketchbook
2:15 PM — 2:30 PM Write in my journal
2:30 PM — 3:30 PM Work on a blog post
3:30 PM — Midnight Whatever my heart desires
Weekly goals:
- 2 Blog posts published/week
- 2 Instagram posts/week
Total: 6.5 hours per day or 33 hours per week
Daily Routine Reality:
So before I share this, I have to get this one thing off my chest. I found out within the first week that being up and ready by 8 AM was just not going to happen for me. And I hate myself for it. Cruel God why did you not give me the discipline that you gave Mark Zuckerburg!!!
Then I had another realization soon after: I like to do what I want. While this “work” is all more fun that it was at my last job, I sometimes didn’t want to do it.
So let’s just say my schedule was all over the place at first. I felt like shit about it. I would want to go out and explore my new city, and I’d come home and want to take a nap and watch TV until I fell asleep. Then the next day I’d work a little…like 2 hours…and feel good about myself. It was toxic lack of structure!
I decided to finally write this blog post because I finally feel like I’ve found a method that works for me. It was unstructured, but…structured at the same time. It was the novel idea of…a to do list.
Sounds silly but it really has transformed my days. Some of it stays consistent — the items that I want to do each day (determined after taking a step back and looking at the big picture of what I want to accomplish this year) — plus between 1 and 3 to-dos that are specific to that day.
Here’s what it looks like for me:
- Check on Facebook Ads for my online business— 15 mins
- Work on a blog post — 30 mins
- Apply to Respondent gigs — 30 mins
- Watch a TED Talk — 15 mins
- Listen to an Audiobook and stretch — 30 mins
- Watch a YouTube video on Ecommerce — 30 mins
- Apply to House Sits on Trusted House Sitters — 30 mins
- Journal — 15 mins
- Work on job research — 1 hour
- Work on portfolio/resume — 30 mins
- Watch an episode of TV in Spanish or French — 40 mins
Other To Do: (Varies daily. Usually telling myself to email such and such lead, or apply to such and such program.)
Total: 5.75 hours per day or 28.75 hours per week.
No time constraint, no specific order. I love that I can vary my days however I wish and still achieve the same things I wanted to before and more.
The Verdict?
For now this to-do list method really works for me. I no longer kick myself for not sticking to a timed schedule or sleeping in. I don’t even kick myself if, at the end of the day, some things aren’t crossed off. I just make a mental note of why I didn’t cross it off today? How can I adjust the item or tackle the underlying reasons why I avoided it? It actually ends up a really good tool to keep myself on track and keep the bigger picture in mind.
Plus, it’s simple — for the items I don’t cross off at the end of the day, I usually try to start with them the next morning. The goal is to beat procrastination…And I know the satisfying dopamine hit each time I get when I cross off an item on my to-do list keeps me motivated and feeling great!
