This is a question that comes up often on social media: What is the secret to our organization’s ability to work and travel at the same time?
We’ll give you an initial answer right away: it’sorganization —and it’s not always easy to carve out enough time to make progress on our professional activities.
We’ve tried to give you a glimpse into our family’s daily routine , to offer you some tips on how to combine travel and work—and thus become a digital nomad!
How long have we been (semi) digital nomads?
We’ll start by briefly introducing ourselves to give you an idea of who we are and our background as digital nomads.
We took our first year-long trip around the world in 2016, which we funded with our savings.
Matthieu has been working as a freelance SEO consultant since 2019, and as for me, I’ve been self-employed since June 2021; I handle our digital activities related to our travel blog. We also run a short-term rental business; we handled guest relations (responding to messages, calls, etc.) until March 2023. All of our activities are now digital, which is why we can travel whenever we want.
Our daughter was born in 2020. Then, in 2021, we bought our camper van, which we used to take several long trips during which we were able to travel and work at the same time:
- 2021–2022: 10 months in Southern Europe
- 2023: 4 months in Northern Europe
- 2024: A 2-month trip to England and Scotland is in the works.
- Several weeks of vacation in France, including Brittany, the northeastern region, and the area around Lyon
We call ourselves semi-nomads because between each long trip, we return to France. We used to live in Bordeaux, and now we live onthe Île d’Oléron, where we’d like to set up our base camp. We don’t stop our activities when we go on vacation.
So far, we haven’t had to deal with homeschooling, because our daughter wasn’t in school yet during our long trips.
Our Travel Pace
We have to juggle time for work, time to manage our family life and the RV (we spend quite a bit of time tidying up when three of us are living in 10 m²), cooking… and we try to carve out some time for ourselves, but honestly, when you’re traveling for several months, that last part definitely falls by the wayside.
When we’re traveling, our strategy for making progress on our professional projects is to work every day —sometimes just one hour, and other times several hours—by staying well-organized.
Ideally, each of us should aim for at least 20 to 25 hours of computer work per week to work on our various websites: Pourquoi Pas Nous, Passion Copenhagen, and Passion Amsterdam.
It’s also worth noting that we do not track the following tasks (which take us about 2 hours per day):
- Taking photos for our content
- Taking notes to help us write our content (we note the prices of activities, tolls, restaurant names, parking lots, etc.)
- Social media posts that I handle while Matthieu is driving.
We work more when we’re sedentary.
Our Typical Day While Traveling
We’ve tried to give you an idea of what our ideal day on a trip looks like—though, of course, not every day is the same. Some days we’re out all day, while on others we just relax…
Overall, we try to organize things this way so we can go about our professional activities with peace of mind. Here’s an example of a typical day in our camper van; we maintain the same routine even when we’re backpacking.
Morning
| Time | Stains |
| 8 a.m. | Alarm Clock |
| 8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m. | – 1 adult handles breakfast and tidying up the vehicle – 1 adult works |
| 9 a.m. | Family Activity Some mornings, we don’t do anything in particular—in those cases, one adult works while the other takes our daughter to the playground. |
| 12:30 p.m. | meal |
| Time | Stains |
| 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Nap or quiet time for our daughter Work for us If we have a drive of more than 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of us, we drive during this time slot |
| 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Road trip + shopping + services, grey and black water emptying if needed Generally we only drive 1 day out of 2 or 3 so we use that time slot to either do a family activity, or work or have time for ourselves. |
| 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. | – Meal preparation (dinner + lunch) – Showers – Preparing for the next day and packing bags for the day |
| 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. | Work Session for Us |
We’ve noticed an increase in our productivity while traveling because we simply have no choice if we want to continue being digital nomads.
One last thing to note is that we usually come home tired because the pace is fast.
Of course, this is a tentative schedule that changes depending on the country and the people we meet. During our 10-month tour of Europe, we spent a month in Bansko at a coworking space.
Our solutions for working and traveling at the same time
- We spent some time ata coworking and coliving space—we did this once in Bansko, Bulgaria—where we relaxed and managed to be productive because everything is set up to allow for comfortable working conditions. You can read about our experience in our “Tour of Europe” article.
- Optimizing travel time: One person drives while the other works—if you don’t get carsick, this is a great way to save time
- Try to divide up the various daily tasks as best as possible so that both adults aren’t tied up with routine chores.
For example, I take our daughter grocery shopping, so Matthieu can work for an hour while we wait. Matthieu, on the other hand, takes care of the chores, which gives me time to work on other tasks. - Have a comfortable work setup that’s easy to set up so you can get started quickly.
- Find a comfortable spot to sit—not on a camping chair on the beach like Matthieu. Most of our photos are taken outdoors because they’re more Instagram-worthy, but in reality, we work indoors 99% of the time.
If you have any other tips for working from anywhere, we’d love to hear them—please share your ideas in the comments!
Don’t hesitate to ask us any questions here or on Instagram.
