Our Journey As Digital Nomads So Far

I took the photo above this weekend when we took a ferry across the Tagus from Lisbon to Montijo. We'd never been before and enjoyed the peace and calm- it felt entirely different to the bustling city but we could still see the central Lisbon bridge in the distance. On our way back to the ferry terminal in the evening we made the decision not to rush and just to wait for the next one- we were rewarded with this beautiful sunset.

I thought it would be a good time to pause and share with you some of the insights we have picked up from our journey so far.

Remember, if you are interested in the life of a digital nomad you can keep up to date with our adventures here and you can join the biggest group for digital nomads on LinkedIn here. This article might also help you think about if the life of a digital nomad is for you.

Back in 2015, we decided to make Las Palmas our first destination and took the time to prepare ourselves a bit for our trip.

Some reflections on why we became digital nomads are here.

We enjoyed settling in to island life and started to encourage others to think about the lifestyle. With so many new things to explore and a tempting beach minutes away, we thought carefully about our work-life balance and tried to create an environment in which we were productive but enjoyed living in the present (living in the present is something I've been trying to get better at!). We tried to keep some of the aspects of our culture that are important to us with us on our travels.

We concluded that Las Palmas is a brilliant place to be a digital nomad and wrote a long article (with contributions from much more experienced digital nomads), explaining why.

Next we went to Berlin, because Nisha was on an ERASMUS Entrepreneurial programme and it was somewhere we had heard so many good things about. We lived in a variety of locations around the city centre (chiefly near the central park, in Prenzlauer Berg and south of Templehof airport).

We also found it a brilliant city for digital nomads, here are some reflections.

We are currently living in Lisbon, the third city we are experiencing as digital nomads. I was so happy with the response to the LinkedIn article I wrote telling people we were moving here- it has given me the chance to meet up with lots of brilliant new people.

There are a lot of reasons why it is a particularly exciting city to live in, in 2017.

Living abroad means I often compare countries (to my home country of the UK, but also to other countries I have lived in). Each digital nomad travels in a different way; has different motivations and experiences life abroad differently. Of course despite all the brilliant things you get to enjoy there are sometimes frustrations and you don't have your full support network around you (we are lucky to have had people come visit us).

Maybe one day this life is for you, either now or in the future? Feel free to ask any questions you may have on the group and good luck with your adventures.

Alex Swallow is The Influence Expert and author of 'How To Become An Influencer'. A free copy of the book and many tips about growing your influence can be found at www.theinfluenceexpert.com. You can join his online course, 'How To Network' free here. He is also the Owner of the social good interview series, Social Good Six, you can access all the interviews here.