Remote Work Tips for Nomads: How to Make Work Life Easier on the Road
These days, it’s not uncommon to work nomadically from the road. Many of our Four Wheel Camper family bought their rigs just for that – to work wherever, whenever!
It’s a beautiful thing to work remotely from all corners of the world, but it also requires a fair amount of self-management and dedication. Plus, there are quite a few tricks you’ll learn along the way to make life easier! Whether new to the road life or looking to ease your current work situation, here are our biggest remote work tips for nomads
1. Have reliable power solutions
This is a big one! When building your Four Wheel Camper, talk with the sales team if you plan to be fully remote & working. This is incredibly important because if you lack reliable power solutions, attempting to work on the road will become stressful & annoying very quickly. Invest in a solar solution, which can be added to your FWC during your build, as that can help ensure you have plenty of power when stopped and camping in the same location for multiple days.
All FWC solar setups also include truck charging, which means your battery is wired directly into the truck to charge while you drive or via solar while you camp. It is a huge benefit for remote work life! For example, Starlink pulls about 60w per hour when consistently running. If you have a 1000wh (watt-hour) lithium battery, that means your Starlink will be able to run for 16 hours or two 8 hour work days. The battery life will decrease if you have additional things pulling power, such as your fridge or charging your laptop. If you plan to work for more than 1-2 days, bump up your solar or add additional batteries to your rig!
It’s not a bad idea to have a backup power source in your van or truck camper. Look into purchasing something like a Jackery or an Eco Flow. These are great backup power options that can be your emergency power bank or just a little extra power on the road. You’ll never regret having too much power!
2. Invest in a solid Wi-Fi solution
First things first – internet! You can’t work remotely without a reliable solution. A hotspot or Starlink are two of the most common solutions for Wi-Fi on the go. There are pros and cons to both.
Starlink – allows access to the internet via satellite anywhere in the world. If you have a clear view of the sky and plan to camp a lot out west, this could be a perfect solution. However, Starlink has frequent outages when camping in areas with trees, making it difficult to work efficiently in forested areas. It is also fairly expensive, coming in at around $150/month.
Hotspot – a cell phone hotspot is an affordable and easy solution for working on the road; just make sure you get a high enough GB plan to support your work needs. If you take a lot of video calls, you’ll need to pay more to have a higher data plan. The downside to hotspots is that they only work in that provider’s service area. No phone service = no internet.
No nomad started traveling with the perfect solution right away. Start with what you think is best, and tweak your Wi-Fi setup as needed down the road!
3. Find campsites in a quiet areas
Avoid working in places like crowded campsites, parking lots, or busy beaches/ scenic areas. It may sound like a dream to park your truck camper at the most scenic pull-off for a work day in Glacier National Park, but you’ll soon realize you’d rather be somewhere else. That is because busy areas come with a lot of distractions & noise, making it harder to focus and work.
And let’s face it, vans or our pop up truck campers aren’t soundproof. If you are somewhere that takes meetings on the go, picking a quiet place will diminish background noises of passing cars, excited tourists, or playing kiddos.
4. Establish a work schedule
On the road, it’s incredible what a little structure can do for the mind and soul. Even if you have a job with flexible hours, work on establishing a routine & schedule to help keep you focused and on track with all your tasks. Many remote work nomads preach that a schedule is one of the most important aspects of being a nomad without getting burnt out.
5. Surround yourself with other working nomads
There are two types of full-timers: working nomads and those enjoying an extended vacation. I think every nomad has likely made this mistake at least once in their life, and that is to pair up with people who are not working while you are.
Now, before we get into this section, it’s also important to remember that you also deserve a vacation. It’s so easy not to take days off while being nomadic because it becomes easy to work from anywhere. If you are pairing up with others who don’t have to work, take that PTO! You deserve it.
However, trying to balance a work schedule when others are free can be difficult, and it can suddenly feel like you’re either holding them back or missing out on epic adventures. Instead, pair up with other working nomads on the road so you can all link up, be productive, and explore with more aligned schedules.
6. Travel slowly
When traveling and working nomadically, it is best not to have a strict or busy itinerary. Sure, plan a few steps ahead in your adventure, but keep plans loose. Working and traveling means that, yes, you have to work, which means seeing & exploring areas often takes days longer than if you were just there on vacation.
Slow travel also makes it easier to stay on your work schedule and truly helps keep a healthy work/life balance. Trust us when we say that you’ll enjoy it way more than trying to hop quickly from place to place! Park your truck camper, setup a homey camp, and enjoy the rare beauty of getting to take your time on your travels.
Remote Work Tips for Nomads from Four Wheel Campers
Are you full-time in your Four Wheel Camper? What additional remote work tips would you add to the list? If you’re someone who is looking for more resources on nomadic life, we have an entire section on your website dedicated to resources for mobile living.
Ready to build out your perfect full-time work rig? Start your build here!
