A Day in the Life of a Normal Nomad: what's a real digital nomad lifestyle?

Do you want to become a digital nomad? You've heard a lot about the digital nomad lifestyle, but what does a typical day in the life of a digital nomad look like?

Well, honestly, I'm not sure. There are so many variables that come into play (location, housing, type of work, how people like to work, how much money they make, how handsome they are...) that I doubt the word "typical" could really cover it.

Some people probably require workspaces. Coworker.com put together an awesome description on coworking and if you're hesitant to make the leap directly into writing a book on the beach, coworking is an excellent way to bridge the gap between working from home and being stuck in an office.

Some people probably try to mimic a 9-5 M-F type job.

Some people have loads of passive income and play loads of minesweeper (I assume).

We are not those people. 

We call ourselves "normal" because for the sake of this blog, we didn't want to have a theme that distracted from talking about being a digital nomad (i.e. all the pictures of us doing sexy yoga poses in front of waterfalls... good for clickbait... bad for actual information).

But, according to my mother, I am not normal; I am abnormal!! (Her exact word was "special," but potato/fromaggio amirite?) 

So, I would like to subhead this very picture heavy post in honor of my favorite reading material:

NormalNomads! They're just like us!

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They wake up!

Every morning, Monica wakes up 1-2 hours before Warren. 

Warren is not always clear what Monica does during these extra hours, but suspects she plots evil ways to wake Warren up because she gets bored.

In actuality, Monica frequently makes coffee, does laundry, exercises, or gets some work done.

Note: At this point, it is approximately 8 a.m.

They drink coffee!

As you can see from the artistically put together collage, Monica literally transforms with her first cup.

Warren stays the cool cucumber he always is.

They do their laundry!

Doing laundry everyday helps it from becoming an arduous task.
We do it first thing in the morning to both take advantage of the days heat to dry it and because getting tasks done right away makes focusing later easier.

They make breakfast!

In an effort to save money and time (and because we like to) we make breakfast at home instead of going out. 
Options range from hard-boiled eggs (shown) to oatmeal to congee. 

They do dishes!

Living in a tropical part of the world is great... mostly. A small issue is the absurdly large amount of ants everywhere. Big ones, small ones, teeny tiny ones, red ones, black ones, all of them.

Any food left on your plate? Now it is covered in ants.
Did you leave the sugar out for two seconds? Ants.

We clean up immediately after eating anything to prevent the scourge.

Note: At this point it is approximately 9 a.m.

They work!

That's right.
A large part of the whole digital nomad thing involves actually working.
Sucks right?

Monica usually uses her Microsoft Surface to build this very blog (whoa, meta) or to study to become a changer of hearts and minds (teaching English to people).

Warren, on the other hand, primarily uses his laptop to write entries on this very blog (deja vu meta!) or to study to work as an indexer. 

We both take some time every morning to respond to emails from friends and family and do all that normal stuff.

The goal is four solid hours of work a day. 
This means that every coffee break, email check, getting up and farting, doesn't count. 

"But I work eight hours a day!" you say.
"Do you?" I respond.

This process generally takes five or six hours.

At some point throughout the working part of the day, we each take quick breaks and do other stuff in no particular order or at any particular time such as:

They fill up water filters!

This one is location specific, since our current place includes a ceramic water filter (genius!)

Prior to this we were spending around 15,000 rupiah a day on water (a little more than a buck) and had to actually go and buy it everyday. Also extra waste and whatnot.

So we are very happy to take the time to fill this bad boy up.

They work out!

Sitting in a chair and working on a computer is pretty hard on your body.

Not only do you not really do anything, you are usually hunched forward with your neck at an odd angle. 

So to prevent injury (and stay in bikini shape) we do some sort of work out everyday.

Monica prefers yoga flows and more cardiovascular work outs that emphasize flexibility and over-all strength (and, in Warren's opinion are stupid hard).

Warren prefers doing push-ups and pull-ups and other basic calisthenic sorts of things. He normally like to include more leg oriented exercises too but is still recovering from a minor leg injury.

They make smoothies!

Sometime around midday we get a hankering for something sweet.

When this happens, we combine a bit of yogurt, milk, ice cubes (made with filtered water), and fruit into a super tasty and satisfyingly cold drink.

The fruit changes everyday but usually includes bananas (since they grow in our yard). 
Other fruits may include:
Papaya, dragonfruit, mango, or pineapple

These smoothies also help us control our eating budget.

Since we buy everything before hand, we know how much they cost.

And we get the pleasure of occasionally going and talking to fruit sellers and buying fruit (something to do!).

All of this makes it possible for us to be able to go out and eat dinner in a warung (restaurant) each night without having to worry too much about our budget.

Oh, did I mention they are super tasty?

They look at cute kitties!

Cause of course we do.

When we first got to our current place, a cat adopted us.
After a few weeks of daily visits from this adorable little kitty, she deemed us worthy to introduce us to her kittens.

So, we put out water and sometimes food (cause we are not made of stone!) for the little devils.

They rinse themselves in the shower!

So, I am not going to show this one (waiting for our pay-to-view service to become active) (that's a joke) but frequently after doing a bit of work-out we get pretty sweaty and it becomes necessary to rinse thyself. This is usually when we put on proper clothes too.

Note: At this point it is approximately 2 or 3 p.m.

They walk into town!

We typically make this trip two times per day. It is a couple of kilometers each way and takes us maybe twenty minutes.

While at first glace this may seem like a waste of time, this is where we vehemently disagree. 

Walking is one of those rare joys of life that is both free and healthy, and we take every chance we can to make it a priority.

Also, because of this, we now know all the locals who own shops along the way and have people to chat with everyday.
(Did you notice the bananas in the picture?)

They go to the beach!

Lovina has a black sand beach, and although it isn't typical to see it full of people, we make a habit of going for a swim nearly everyday. 

The water is clear, calm, and pretty warm. 
Plus, we get to chat with all the locals that sell their wares on the beach and sometimes make new friends.


They check stuff out!

During our two walks per day we always find something new and interesting to look at.

Sometimes it is an odd and artistic carving made atop an old tree stump.

And other times it is some pig rooting around in some garbage.
Sometimes we simply appreciate how different everything here looks compared to where we are from.
 They eat dinner!

This is our major financial burden of the day, and we always aim to make the most of it.

In Lovina, our favorite place has been Warung Ayu. The food there is delicious and the people (including Ayu herself) have been great.

Monica's go to dish is Nasi Goreng with tuna.

Warren's go to dish is Mie Goreng, although in this picture he is having pork Rendang.

Are you curious about all the different foods you can find in the different warungs? Then check out our blog post on just that subject here.
They read in bed!

Each night, after dinner, we either play some dominoes, watch a Star Trek movie (we are up to Generations now, I think), or do some reading.

Not surprisingly, not having a television to turn on means we have been getting through a large amount of books. 

Thankfully we've managed to collect some from other people so we haven't run out (yet!).


And that's it. Normally, we are asleep between nine and ten and the next day we do it all over again.

So far we haven't felt the need to treat the weekend like anything special, so this routine works seven days a week.

Obviously, when we change locations, other things change too, but all in all we try to keep this as consistent as we can.

Thanks for getting this far in what will probably be our longest post on this blog!

If you have any thoughts or comments, let us know down below! What's a day in your life like? Are you a digital nomad, do you work from home, or are you just a traveler/hustler/homeless vigilante?


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