Being a digital nomad can be very intense. After all, you need to manage your time well, find a new work-life balance, stay in touch with people at home, keep deadlines, deal with administration, and all of this on top of traveling from country to country. So here are some of the best apps and tools to help you out.
Social
We meet more people in a month in a new place than many meet in their lifetimes. Our lifestyle just lends itself to it. But have you ever thought about how many missed connections we probably have as digital nomads? All of the people we’ve met or *could* have met who cross our paths here or there, and we don’t even know it?
Punta, the digital nomad hub is a platform where you can share your travel plans and find all of the people who are along the same route. See who you would share more time with along your travel plan or by hobbies, and connect. For this, Punta is an indispensable tool for the modern-day nomad.
NomadaGo is the essential App for Digital Nomads, where you can share your travel plans, see where your friends are and where they’re going and get notified when friends are nearby. Create your profile and connect with like minded people around the world, explore verified coworks and colives, and turn online connections into real-life experiences.
Organization
If you want to be able to move your life from country to country, it needs to be well organized. When it comes to apps, there is a whole range of options. Evernote lets you keep all the bits and pieces of links, photos, and ideas we all amass as we live online. Wunderlist keeps all your to-do lists for both work and personal life (especially useful for tracking administrative steps as well as finishing projects). And lastly, there are online tools like Trello or Active Collab which help you keep on top of group projects across borders.
When it comes to physical tools, you really want to invest in a well-sized external hard drive. Saving things on the cloud is not bad either, but this way you can be sure that you have access to all the important files even without an internet connection. One more practical tool is a cable organizer. Between your laptop, phone, chargers, etc. you will have a bunch of electronics. Keeping them in a handy organizer will save you a headache or two.
Concentration
Most people think they either can concentrate or they can’t but there are tons of tools and apps that can really help you focus. One of them is the app Twilight. This app slightly tints your screen depending on the time of day to help you focus, strain your eyes less, and save battery life. Another great app is Focus@will which creates white noise in your earphones to help dull noisy surroundings. A good alternative to that is the Noise Generator online.
But it’s not just apps that help you concentrate as a digital nomad. If you work from home, having a chair with good lumbar support, a well-organized desk and lots of light will help you focus on even the most difficult of tasks. But you can’t take these with you, so you’re at the mercy of your accommodation. This is where co-working spaces come in. You can rent a place in a coworking space for a few days or months, have a calm and professional office, and meet like-minded people all at the same time.
Travel
There are tons of apps to help you out with travel. Apps like Tripit organize your digital documentation, hotel reservations, etc. Workfrom helps you find the best cafés and libraries to work from in a new town. Itranslate and Google Translate help you chip away at the language barrier. And apps like Hopper or Kiwi help you find the best deals on flights.
But there are other things that can really help you with travel. Make sure you have a good backpack. Suitcases are fine, but you don’t know when you will need to walk longer distances with all your things in one luggage. The last thing is a pair of earphones and an e-reader. After all, traveling has a lot of downtime, and staying happy and relaxed is half the point of being a digital nomad.
