What Kind Of Digital Nomad Are You?
I recently crossed virtual paths with Deborah Simmons of Camino Insight on LinkedIn. I shared the Best Places to Work From Anywhere and when I saw her comment included Lisbon & Mexico City, I knew we were kindred spirits. Side note - she also recommend Belgrade which I’m adding to my list!
I was fortunate to have a zoom coffee date with her and learn that she is a User Centered Design Researcher who is as obsessed with finding the common patterns/pitfalls of digital nomad life as I am.
During her journey with Remote Year, Deborah studied 100+ digital nomads to discover the common work and travel styles and how they translate to their workspace needs. She summarized her findings beautifully during her Workplace Trends conference keynote presentation last May.
Her research showed digital nomads can be classified in two ways. First, by duration of travel.
She further defines three main groups:
Perpetual Nomads who just have the transient lifestyle in their blood. They probably grew up moving around a lot (this is me) and can’t imagine ever living in one place for the rest of their lives.
Shift Nomads, these are the folks who are making a big LEAP because they want something radically different than their current circumstances. Her research shows this group typically travels for 3 months - 3 yrs before settling down somewhere as the design their landing.
Intermittent Nomads. This group likes to have a home base and take 1-4 month trips before returning to home base. They commonly hunker down to save money, then take off to travel, returning to work again.
Which type of nomad are you?
Secondly, she defines typologies based on interests, professional focus, attitudes & motivations:
There’s the Hipster Nomad, the Sustainable Nomad, the Stripped Back Nomad, the Existential Nomad, and my favorite…the YOLO Nomad. You’ll have to listen to the keynote to learn the difference (min: 9:52).
I see several aspects of myself across the different typologies. When I first started traveling I was more of a Hipster Nomad, researching every city before arrival, making a check list of all the cool hip restaurants & bars to check out, getting it all dialed in.
Meanwhile, the Stripped Back Nomad in me tracks spend using Trail Wallet and loves it when I come under budget!
And then there’s my inner YOLO Nomad who is not afraid to throw down for a 7 day luxury guided Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu or a spa day at a Patagonian resort.
Llao LLao resort & spa in Bariloche, Argentina
Salkantay Trek to Machu Piccu, Peru.
There’s no “one right way” to adapt your life to travel the world. That’s the beauty. Some may travel for years, some use home base to launch from intermittently, while for others nomad life just becomes a permanent way of being. Regardless of the rhythm, you will need to make at least one leap, you will learn more about what they really want in the liminal expansion of your travels, and if you choose, you can fold that learning into when designing your landing.
Whether you do this in on big arc, or many smaller loops, the opportunity to expand, learn and integrate is there for the seizing.