Image credit:  Justin.li

You were excited by the concept of a Location Independent Lifestyle for a reason. It was the idea of being able to live and work anywhere you chose.

The cube wars were not for you. Neither was working by the light of a naked bulb in your mother’s basement.

You dreamt of breaking free, cutting loose and hitting the road. Then you discovered there was more to it than that.

Working by the pool wasn’t as practical as you’d hoped. The travel was great but you had to keep pounding away to fund it.

Perhaps “Location Independent” and “Professional” have been more difficult to keep in the same box than you’d expected.

You’re working hard and the world is your oyster but how do you decide where to go and how to choose?

If you want to find out exactly what makes a good base for a digital nomad, then read on.

Location, Location, Location…

Whilst it’s true to say that it really is all about the location… which one? Each of us have a dream list – our own personal “1000 Places to See Before We Die” – but many of those regions would not make good professional bases.

The answer revolves around loving where you’re at and be able to work from locations that inspire you. So much of our success in remaining location independent rests on the ease of doing business wherever we find ourselves.

Ask yourself “What am I trying to accomplish?”

• Are you seeking out a quiet place to write an epic novel or roll out a new product with out distractions?
• Is it critical to make important connections with new business partners?
• Do you want a place to develop your skill set?
• Are you looking for somewhere you ache to be, keep the ball rolling and enjoy the perks of the lifestyle for a while?

Your responses will be the driving force behind the choice for your next base.

Accessibility

No matter where in the world we next end up, as digital nomads, accessibility is key. Ironically, this is one of the most overlooked aspects of researching a new stop.

Just because it looks nice in the postcard does NOT mean that the location has got what it takes to offer you an adequate base for a period of time.

What are the “non-negotiables” in terms of accessibility?

An Internet Connection

We can’t do business without it and it’s likely that neither can you. We can minimize our on-line presence and make do with connectivity a couple of times a week but it HAS to be there, preferably faster than a donkey cart loaded with onions.

Language

We’ve lived and worked in places where we didn’t speak the language but it’s not easy. If you’re new to the world of living and working anywhere, minimize your frustration and pick a base where you can converse with the locals, at least a little bit.

Relying on a phrase book seems like a reasonable plan until you’re trying to trouble shoot your connectivity issues with the phone company in Arabic. Places where we’re completely illiterate fall under “adventure travel” not “home base”.

Amenities

Amenity lists reflect personal requirements and will therefore vary. We’ve worked in tents with an extension cord running twenty yards (18 metres) from a bath house but we didn’t call it our “base.”

We can all do with less and our businesses will survive. A “base” is defined by “ideal” not “what can I live without?”

Consider carefully what you need for your specific lifestyle and business to flourish.

For us, our primary list includes:

• at least two bedrooms – we have four kids!
• electricity and hot water
• a market within walking distance
• a bank with an ATM in town

The secondary list of things we would LIKE features:

• a park for the kids to play in
• a decent English language bookstore
• a bar or pub within a mile (1.5 kms) or so
• a beach or community center to meet locals
• an expat community
• a post office

If you have a particular location in mind, use your amenities list to help find the perfect community for an extended stay.

Work-Life Balance Potential

Another reason we are digital nomads is the quest to find that perfect balance between work and life – with a healthy leaning towards enjoying the “life” part more. We all know that so why not add that into your next base decision?

Choose a city with lots of cultural and arts activities: maybe Vienna?

Opt for a vibrant expat community to swap stories, make connections and filter your new cultural experience: Prague perhaps?

On the other hand, your idea of work-life balance may mean finding a place to hide when you’re not working. How about long beaches to walk, mountains to escape into without anything electronic in your pocket apart from your GPS or islands to sail between and let the breeze blow the cobwebs out of your brain: Vancouver, might be suitable.

The best part of being Location Independence is the freedom to live and work in fabulous places but don’t be fooled – it takes careful planning and attention to detail to achieve that level of nomadic zen that appears on the postcards we send “home”.

What are your “must haves” in Location Independent Base?  Do you have a fantastic resource for finding lodging or business connections that you’d like to share?

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I had the same conversation again this morning – the one I have at least twice a week.  It begins with someone asking about my laptop and ends with a version of “Wow!  Must be nice to live on holiday!”

Having learnt the futility of pursuing such comments, these days I just smile and get back to my work. There is no way to explain to someone so stuck in the cube wars that a poolside office represents my idea of a proper work-life balance and is not a vacation.

The live anywhere, work anywhere lifestyle may be defined in multiple ways but on one issue there is no argument – a permanent work break it most definitely is not!

Upsides and Downsides

Waking up next to the poolside office is indeed one of the upsides to being location independent, as is being able live where everyone else only comes to visit. Instead of a week, our stays normally run for two or three months and in our summer schedule, Tuesdays are beach days, not office days.

Our day to day existence is exactly the same as everybody else and with similar challenges – it just happens in more than one place.  We still need to eat, clean bathrooms, educate the kids, manage sick days, do mountains of laundry and – oh yes – WORK!

We’ve been mistaken for independently wealthy (we are not), semi-retired (depends on your definition), homeless (by choice!) and migrant workers (perhaps the closest to reality). The thing we are not, I repeat, is on leave.

Being location independent, in addition to the normal activities of living, you can tag on language barriers, Internet angst and perpetual upheaval.

Whilst it’s true that we get to see lots of fabulous countries the trade off is that an actual vacation becomes elusive; a complete break from “the daily grind” hard to find.

What Exactly Do You Want?

As you move towards living and working anywhere and periodically thereafter, I’d recommend devoting some brain space to what you really want from this type of lifestyle.

The travel is the best part, for us at least. The freedom to organise each day as we wish is priceless.

That said, it’s very easy to become a work-a-holic when your office is nowhere and everywhere all at once.  Working by the pool is cool – very cool – but not if you fail to look up for long enough to observe what’s around you and float around in the water for a while.

If you expect location independence to create a perpetual state of fiesta in your life, you will be sadly disappointed.

Achieving a true work/life balance can be tricky. I thoroughly recommend that you first make a list of your business goals and pursue them doggedly; then create another list of your dream destinations and experiences. It’s up to you to take action on both sides in order to make those things happen.

We are only given one life. It’s a shame to spend most of it in an office building, hemmed in by half walls, but it’s an even greater shame to be out there in great big world, free to live your way and yet  find yourself still penned in – mentally at least – by the same box that you were so sure you were escaping.

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When I started teaching at university in 2000, I had no idea that I’d just taken my first steps towards a location independent lifestyle. As a child, I’d been a nomad – or rather my parents had. By the time I was 12, I’d already lived in four countries and visited several others.

Growing up, travel was taken for granted in our house. There were always people dropping in speaking different languages and smelling of exotic spices and scents which made me long to visit those countries.

As I got older, I started to do just that, making forays to different countries in the Caribbean, South America and to different US States – New York and Miami, but who’s counting?

The year I turned 21, I lived in France and travelled all over Europe, experiencing the excitement and wonder of visiting new places and learning about new cultures.  It was magical – most of the time, anyway!

First Steps Towards a Live Anywhere, Work Anywhere Lifestyle

Fast forward several years and I was back in the UK and had just started working as a lecturer. Unlike any of the positions I’d held before, this was a job where it was OK to turn up just in time for your lecture, to pop out for a coffee, to sit and talk to students and colleagues (as long as you got your marking done in the end) and to work from home.

Epiphany number 1 – When I worked from home, I found that I was more efficient, accomplishing in a couple of hours what would have taken me all day at the office. And the time I freed up by doing that was mine, all mine.

Work from home – there had never been three more beautiful words in the English language – and they opened up a range of possibilities for the rest of my life, although it would still be a while before I took the next step…

A Second Revelation

I’d spent my teenage years in the Caribbean and had always had a hankering to move back there – a vision which my husband shared once he’d been introduced to the region. But I knew that I did not want to work in an office and deal with 1950s style bureaucracy and formality.

While I was puzzling that out, several things  happened: we found a piece of land, I had a baby and started working part-time.

Epiphany number 2 – once I was working only two days a week, I had a much better quality of life and work-life balance. I could spend most of the week with my family, while doing enough to bring in some pennies for the rest of it.

What a revelation! I began to think hard and in 2005, I went freelance while still in the UK. That gave me the chance to build up a writing business, while still taking on part-time teaching work. By the time we made our move to the Caribbean in 2006, it was obvious that working remotely was not only possible, but would eventually be lucrative.

Location Independence – My Version

So that’s my story. I’ve been living in the Caribbean for the past four years. For me location independence doesn’t mean I have to move about, only that I can. Since I don’t choose to homeschool, I spend most of the year in a beautiful tropical paradise, but I often travel either for family holidays or client work. Last year, I ran my writing business from Chicago, Mexico, London, Bahrain and Florida – it was a great year!

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