Navigating time zones is tricky even if you aren't a digital nomad. It's an issue even if you live on another continent from your employer or clients.
And not just another continent. I and many other people live on the West Coast but work for East Coast based companies. We get used to 7 am meetings, and to coming in to dozens of unread email messages as our colleagues have beenb at work for hours.
A friend lives and works in London. He picks up his daughter promptly at 5 pm from daycare (if you're even a minute late, he says, they sell the children to work in the Welsh coal mines). Then after that he goes back to work and starts exchanging calls, IMs, and emails with his California-based clients, who are just getting into work.
Further thoughts on Digital Nomads aside from my mind always returning to "let your fingers do the walking" I always think of a nomad as never quite being sure where the next port o' call might be and along with that what manner of connectibility awaits you. For me not at all like a nomad any travel would mean shedding all these digital ties that bind bringing to mind this illustration from Gulliver's Travels.
I have been thinking quite a lot lately about all what you are saying here. I am glad I found your Vblog when I am seriously thinking of starting with some bigger steps, something similar to Mike's. I already passed the baby steps level as a digital nomad, I believe. :)
So far my plan goes like this: I'll be having my office in London for half of April and half of May. Taking the opportunity to attend the Big Data Conference. Back to my Helsinki base to change winter clothes to spring-summer clothes. Destination uncertain yet for the summer. Somewhere not too hot. I try to avoid brain melting.
Packing my office and moving it to Greece for the fall (when is not too hot anymore) combining tech writing with some marine conservation research volunteering. So how is that for starters to report from a mobile office? :)
Indeed, time management is one of the main questions. If you have a pretty good routine established, one that works well for you, it should work the same anywhere.
Indeed, excellent WiFi is of paramount importance if you plan to be a digital nomad.
Also, you can choose to use an Internet connection via USB. That's what I have if I happen to be working from a place where there is no WiFi, like a park, or from a top of a rock in front of the sea in summer. Yes, I have done that. :)
I should remember to take a picture of my office on top of the rock this summer and post it here. :D That particular spot is one of my favourite outdoor offices. It's quiet, relaxing, great view, pleanty of fresh air, and I can have a picnic day at the same time.
One summer, some years ago, I worked from a friend's summer cottage. The place is in the forest, totally isolated. Yet, we both had our USB Internet connection, and we both did our work from there.
Now, in the city, I am lucky enough to be based in a place where you find excellent free WiFi everywhere. Even in the streets in the center of Helsinki you could connect your mobile device to a free Angry Birds connection, sponsored by Rovio. There is also a free WiFi from the City of Helsinki working in plenty of places.
About the time difference, in my case I have managed that part well. I have an app on my desktop with the different time zones I need, to make it easier.
Mitch also needs to manage time differences, at least with New York. Right, Mitch?
For sure nomadism does sound very cool after being shut-in now for months by an endless Winter.
One thing working somewhat against it is time differences from far-off places to the local office that is unless time management has gone to pot and we find ourselves working close to 24 hours per day.
One thing working for nomadism is that almost everyplace seemingly has WiFi far superior to anything you can find in the US.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
The smartphone market reached a significant milestone, a breakthrough that may cause vendors to celebrate but could strain the capabilities of IT service desks.
In the fall of 2011, around 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in a Stanford-sponsored online course about artificial intelligence. About 23,000 completed the course and got certificates, including 248 who got a perfect score. The university offered the same course the old-fashioned way to students sitting in Stanford classrooms. None of the those students got a perfect score.
As Mitch Wagner discussed today, Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr. The big Internet debate at the moment is whether Tumblr will be good or bad for Yahoo. Regardless of their stances on the future of Yahoo itself, many claim that Yahoo will somehow ruin Tumblr.
Has China stolen a march on the West, developing an Internet architecture that is not only based on IPv6, but is also inherently secure from both internal and external attack?
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
At this morning's opening general session of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit, there was clearly a consistent and pervasive theme: The Chief Executive Customer has arrived and expects to be treated as such.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
