It’s a question that often comes up on social networks: what’s the secret to our organization’s ability to work and travel at the same time?
The first part of the answer isorganization, and it’s not easy every day to find enough time to get on with our professional activities.
We’ve tried to present a typical day in the life of our family , to give you some tips on how to combine travel and work and become a digital nomad!
How long have we been (semi) digital nomads?
We’ll start with a quick introduction to give you an idea of who we are and our history as digital nomads.
We completed our first one-year round-the-world trip in 2016, which we financed with our savings.
Matthieu has been self-employed as an SEO freelancer since 2019, and as for me, I’ve been self-employed since June 2021, looking after our digital activities linked to our travel blog. We also have a short-term rental real estate business, and we managed the relationship with travelers (answering messages, calls, etc.) until March 2023. Today, all our activities are digital, which means we can travel as we please.
Our daughter was born in 2020. Then, we bought our converted vehicle in 2021, with which we made several long trips during which we were c since we traveled and worked at the same time :
- 2021-2022: 10 months in Southern Europe
- 2023: 4 months in Northern Europe
- 2024: 2 months in England + Scotland are in preparation.
- Several weeks’ vacation in France, including Brittany, the north-east and the region around Lyon
We call ourselves semi-nomads, because between each long trip, we return to France. We’ve lived in Bordeaux, and now on theIle d’Oléron, where we’d like to set up our base camp. We don’t stop our activities when we go on vacation.
For the time being, we haven’t had to deal with home schooling, as during our long trips our daughter wasn’t yet in school.
Our travel rhythm
We have to juggle between time to work, time to manage our family life and the motorhome (we spend a lot of time tidying up when we live in 10 m2 with 3 people), cooking… and we try to have time for each other, but honestly, when we travel for several months, this last point clearly goes out the window.
On our travels, our solution for making progress on our professional projects is to work every day, some days for just 1 hour and other days for several hours, in a well-organized way.
Ideally, we’d like to work towards a minimum of 20-25 hours per week on our Pourquoi Pas Nous, Passion Copenhagen and Passion Amsterdam websites.
Please also note that we do not include the following times (which take up about 2 hours per day):
- Taking photos for our content
- Note-taking to write up our content (we note the prices of activities, tolls, restaurant names, parking lots, etc.).
- Publications on the social networks I look after when Matthieu is driving.
We work harder when we’re sedentary.
A typical day on the road
We’ve tried to map out our ideal day on the road, but of course not all days are alike. Some days we’re away all day, others we’re resting…
On the whole, we try to have this type of organization so that we can move forward serenely in our professional activities. We’ll give you an example of a day in a converted vehicle, but we also keep this pace when we’re backpacking.
Morning
| Time | Stains |
| 8h | Alarm clock |
| 8h-9h | – 1 adult takes care of breakfast / vehicle storage – 1 adult works |
| 9h | Family activity Some mornings we do nothing in particular, in which case 1 adult works while the other is busy on the playground with our daughter. |
| 12h30 | meal |
| Time | Stains |
| 2pm – 4pm | Siesta or quiet time for our daughter Work for us If we have + 1h30 to drive, we drive in this time slot |
| 16h – 18h30 | Route + errands + services, grey and black water change if needed We generally only drive 1 day out of 2 or 3, so we use this time to either do an activity with the family, work or have some time to ourselves. |
| 6:30-8 p.m. | – Preparing meals (dinner + lunch) – Showers – Preparing for the next day and the day’s bags |
| 8pm – 10pm | Work session for us |
We’ve noticed an increase in our productivity when traveling , because we simply have no choice if we want to continue to be digital nomads.
A final point to note is that we generally come home tired, because the pace is so fast.
Of course, this is a theoretical schedule that changes according to the countries and meetings. During our 10-month tour of Europe, we stopped off in Bansko for 1 month at a coworking space.
Our solutions for working and travelling at the same time
- Take a break ina coworking or coliving space. We did this 1 time in Bansko, Bulgaria, where we rested and were able to be productive because everything is organized to work in good conditions. You can read about our experience in our Tour of Europe article.
- Optimize commute times: one drives and the other works, so if you’re not car sick, it’s a great time-saving option.
- Try to divide up the various daily tasks as best you can, so that you’re not 2 adults mobilized on everyday tasks.
For example, I take care of the shopping with our daughter, so that Matthieu can work for 1 hour in the meantime. Matthieu is in charge of services, which leaves me time to get on with other tasks. - A pleasant, easy-to-install work set-up to get you up and running quickly.
- Set up in a comfortable place, not on the beach on a camping chair like Matthieu. We mainly shoot outdoors because it’s more Instagrammable, but in reality we work indoors 99% of the time.
If you have any other tips for working everywhere, we’d love to hear from you. Share your ideas in the comments!
Don’t hesitate to ask us any questions here or on Instagram.
