This weekend I’ve been sensing a burnout coming. It happens every other month if I take too much on, and at the same time have unforeseen stressful events coming up. This time it started building up while I was travelling to Bali. It made me think about digital nomadism, as I was working full time on the trip. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a lot better at responding to this when it comes up, and hopefully I will manage this time as well.
Bali is not a long distance from Lombok where I live, but it still takes around 8 hours to make the slow-boat ferry trip door to door. I make these trips every now and then, mainly to see my girlfriend, who lives in Bali, but also to run other errands. This time I had to pick up a new passport. I usually work on the boat, and when I’m in Bali, I’ll hit up one of the nice cafés around—at least if I’m in Canggu or Ulu. However, this is not always the case, and I often end up with some half-comfortable seating and poor wifi instead.
Being a digital nomad sounds like a dream—and in many ways, it is. But I realized long ago that full-time nomadism isn’t for me. My days are usually very busy with a combination of work, surfing and other exercise, and various self development efforts. In my experience, combining that with travel is just hard. These short trips are generally fine, but it does disrupt your flow, there’s no doubt about that. And then you have to build yourself back up afterwards.
I saw an interview with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the other day which caught my attention. If you don’t follow basketball, he’s one of the biggest talents in the NBA right now. He was asked how he stays so consistent, and his answer was “my whole life is consistent”, and went on to explain how every part of his life is tailored for him to succeed. His eating, sleeping, relationships—every part of his life. This is not exactly a novel idea, but it was just the way it was presented, and who it came from that gave it such an impact. It might not be the most interesting life all the time either, but it may well be what it takes to succeed.
And this is where the problem lies with nomadism. I’ve always loved travelling, and the more adventurous and uncomfortable the trip, the better (to a limit). However, if you are pursuing something ambitious, it just doesn’t combine well. If you work 2–4 hours a day and prioritize an easy-going lifestyle, all power to you. But if you’re chasing something ambitious, the unpredictability that comes with travel isn’t your friend. It will end up with you lagging behind on your work, which might also be fine if you work for the man, but when you work for yourself, the cost is much higher. In many ways, entrepreneurship is a competition. There are others out there building the same things as you, and if you don’t perform, you will lose.
That is not to say you shouldn’t travel, but for me at least, I try to keep them separate. Except for smaller trips now and again; I can accept their cost. But for longer trips I prefer to leave work at home and fully enjoy the adventure. The trip to Bali was great, but now it’s time to get back to discipline, back to the waves, and back to building.