Digital Nomad - Chase Warrington

I guess it depends on how you define it, but I would say since 2014. I have been working remotely since I was 18 years old, and during my entire adult career since 2009. I started living the nomad life in 2014 and today I spend about 2/3 of my time living abroad in Spain, and the rest of the year traveling and working remotely.

I am the Head of Remote at Doist (doist.com), a fully remote company of around 100 people working from 35 countries.

I am also the host of About Abroad (aboutabroad.com), a podcast dedicated to sharing life experiences of expats, nomads and remote workers, who are exploring the world and settling in foreign corners of the globe.

At Doist my job is to ensure we as a company are making remote work, work, at the highest possible level. As part of this, I advocate, speak, write and consult for some of the leading organizations in the world on making remote work the new normal. This movement can empower the masses to live nomadically or just simply in the place they choose to call home, which has so many benefits for humanity. I want to be a part of that because it's afforded me the opportunity to live the lifestyle that truly calls to me, and I think this should move from being a niche, to the mainstream.

Via my podcast, About Abroad, I try to showcase how people from various walks of life are exploring life beyond their borders. Technology has broken down invisible barriers that previously prevented people from being able to take their work on the road with them. Today we have the ability to travel full time, settle in a new place, or enjoy a workation with the family. People are achieving this in places around the world via a variety of different methods, and I try to share those stories to inspire others and provide them with the information they need, to do the same.

Wow tough to say! I started traveling a lot when I was 18 years old and quickly realized I needed this to be a core aspect of my entire life. Later I studied abroad in Europe, worked in Asia and started exploring internships and full time jobs that would provide me an opportunity to combine work and travel.

These experiences took me through dozens of countries, but I think my first true digital nomad experience was in Cuenca, Ecuador. My wife and I (and our loveable Husky, Koda) had been traveling for a year working month to month in various places in the US, but decided we would take our show on the international road. We headed down to LatAm and first stopped for 5 months in Ecuador. We stayed in the south, in a mountain city of Cuenca, and learned a lot about settling into a place for the mid-term, as opposed to passing through for a quick trip or even a month. We made friends, we leased an apartment, we got phone plans, etc... We also had to learn a lot about traveling with a dog internationally, which became very valuable as we continued to explore the world with our furry friend.

Someone very close to me said, very candidly - "are you nuts!?" People didn't understand why we would give up our cushy corporate jobs, which were already remote and relatively flexible, to obtain true location independence and travel the world. We sold our home, gave up our 401ks, stock options and company cars, and settled into nomad life - people didn't get it!

Today people get it, much more than before. We've built a "real" life for ourselves, where we have "real" jobs, a plan for the future, and we happen to thoroughly enjoy ourselves along the way. The fact that we took two steps back to take three steps forward, is something I'm really proud of and want other aspiring nomads to know is possible.

I prefer a coworking space as my primary option, followed by a nice coffee shop. Occasionally I will work from "home" but I like to get out and explore, meet people and experience the local culture. Usually this is outside the house/hotel, and that's why I'm nomading in the first place!

I'm biased, but Twist & Todoist are at the center of my life! Twist helps me collaborate with 100 people in 35 countries across all time zones, without the stress that other tools cause. This means I can be hyper-productive and work totally asynchronously (meaning time zones don't matter anymore!), to enjoy the place I'm in and still be productive. Todoist allows me to keep track of what I'm working on, as well as the workload of my teams. Transparency is key when collaborating with remote teams, and these tools keep my life on track.

I also love Calendly for booking meetings, and Doodle for nailing down meeting times that work for groups. I also work in Google Docs/Sheets and Dropbox Paper a lot

It's cliche but people still tend to think of digital nomads as lazy millennials sitting on a Bali beach with a cocktail in one hand and a laptop in the other. We're not that, never really have been, but now we're seeing everyone from startup founders to the Big Four accounting firms adopting remote work and embracing digital nomad life. Where we work from has never been less important than it is now, and this narrative is changing - I hope the myth about digital nomads changes along with it.

• Have a system. Don't wing it everyday. Figure out when you work best, what type of environment you work best from, and what tools you'll use to facilitate your work. If you leave it to yourself to wake up and create a new plan everyday, you'll most likely fail. We're less disciplined than we like to think, so save yourself from yourself, and have a system
• Separate work from life. It's more likely that you will overwork, than underwork, as the lines between work and life are super blurry now. How will you react when someone asks you to take a meeting at midnight now that you're in Asia? How will you disconnect from work at the end of the day, when you don't have a boss saying it's ok to go into the office next to you? Create clear working and non-working hours, and protect the latter. It's ok to say no, it's ok not to work. You need to enjoy the nomad life, not just work your way through it
• And with that said, also be flexible! You're on a journey, enjoy it - it would be a shame not to! So you committed to working from 8-12 but now an awesome opportunity to experience something truly local has come up - take it! You need a system in place, but you need to bake flexibility into it as well, otherwise why are you on this journey?

I hope it becomes fully accepted by the masses so people don't have to choose between their professional aspirations and their life goals.

Ugh, just one? :)

It's so hard to choose so I'll just go with a recent awesome memory! I live in Valencia, Spain, right now and my wife and I have a campervan. We recently fulfilled a dream to spend a summer in the Alps, working along the way and exploring all the natural beauty we could through France and Switzerland in the van.

At one point I was sitting in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, a tiny little village in the "valley of waterfalls", working from a traditional Swiss Chalet. I recall a distinct moment where I reflected back on my day, which had started with an early morning mountain bike ride (one of my favorite activities) and would end with a raclette dinner at a nice restaurant, and a campfire next to an Alpine river. In between I'd have the opportunity to practice my rudimentary German, collaborate with dozens of teammates from around the world, manage a seven-figure budget, and hold meetings with third party partners at other successful companies.

Looking up at the 100 ft waterfall above the periphery of my laptop, it made me really happy to know that professional success no longer had to be sacrificed in order to have this international experience. It was always my dream to constantly immerse myself in an international experience, and the digital nomad lifestyle has provided me with exactly that!