HEALTH & WELLNESS >
It’s often challenging to establish a balance between work, health, earning well, and traveling when you are an FDN.
I learned this the hard way when I was trapped in the vicious cycle of either exploring a new destination but still worrying about not dedicating enough time to grow my business, or working but thinking that I was missing out on cool activities with my DN friends.
“This is not the way I want to live my digital nomad life,” I said to myself one day. By that time, I felt constantly overwhelmed.
If you feel the same way at the moment, I’m happy to share with you the five daily habits I have made a part of my life to overcome the work-life balance issue. These habits have had a tremendous impact on my life and have enabled me to ditch the negative thoughts haunting my day-to-day life
1 – SET ASIDE TIME TO WORK
FDNs often don’t have an official schedule, which sees them either work countless hours per week more than needed or traveling (or exploring/procrastinating/focusing on what is not important) rather than working. By following Pareto’s principle that states: “20% of our work generates 80% of our revenue,” we realize we need to establish a scheduled time for work and focus on the 20% that earns us 80% of our revenue.
HELPFUL ACTION TIPS TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR SCHEDULE:
• ACTION 1 – Determine how you spend your time by creating a schedule of your current activities. (As a help, download our free Action Kit and complete action 1)
• ACTION 2 -Analyze whether you are spending enough time on what matters to reach your goals and dreams.
• ACTION 3 – When you are at work, which activities brings you most of your income?
• ACTION 3 – Personal Q&A – Are you spending enough time on work? Or are you spending too much time on travel, procrastination or activities that don’t bring you closer to achieving your dreams and goals?
• ACTION 4 – Based on the analysis of your current schedule, determine what you need to spend more or less time on to reach your goals.
• ACTION 5 – Set aside enough hours each day for work for at least a minimum of four to five days a week, together with a start and end time for each work day. This can be done through the alarm function on your phone or via any online calendar app.
2 – DO ONE THING YOU LOVE (THAT IS NOT WORK-RELATED)
ACTION 6 – Make time for fun and the things you love. I was guilty of listening to, reading, and researching only things that were work-related and ended up not enjoying my work as a DN as much as I thought I would. But when I started making cooking (which I’m passionate about!) again a part of my life, I felt much happier.
HELPFUL ACTION TIP: Find and do one activity that you truly love. It can be anything from reading or playing soccer to doing Sudoku; whatever it is, put aside time to do it
3 – PRACTICE MINDFULNESS
ACTION 7 – Nowadays, we tend to think mindfulness is the same as meditation.
Instead, being mindful is the act of being fully attentive and aware of what’s happening in the present moment, and it can be done at every moment of our day.
That means that you can practice it while doing different activities, such as journaling, walking, eating, visualizing, or writing down what you are grateful for
4 – GET YOUR BODY MOVING
Feeling lethargic, stuck at work, or just unmotivated to do anything?
Movement is the solution.
You probably already know it, but science has proven that exercise can help increase our levels of endorphins and serotonin (the “feel good” chemicals), which explains why exercise can help distract our mind from anxious thoughts and stressful situations.
Too busy for exercise? Even going for a walk or a light run will work wonders.
But if you would like a full-on sweaty workout to get your heart rate pumping, HIIT is the way to go. Short and sweet, it will maximize your time and efforts and will help get you lean and toned in under 15 minutes.
ACTION 7 – Try any of the following free HIIT workouts: http://bit.ly/travel-hiit
5 – SET UP OUTDOOR BREAKS
ACTION 8 – Oh boy! I know how easy it is to end up working in an Airbnb all day long without taking a single step outside – it has happened to me many times – but it is important to breathe some fresh air on a daily basis.
Even if you have one of those busy days, 15 minutes outside won’t make all that much difference to your work, but it will have a huge impact on your mood and efficacy, so lace up those walking shoes and get out there!
Here you go, five simple habits that have impacted my life for the best. May they also assist you in achieving a better work-health balance.
Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t manage to implement all of these at once. You should actually incorporate one habit at a time so as not to overwhelm yourself. Sometimes, it is better to pursue incremental changes that will last rather than transformational changes that you won’t keep up with.
Thank you for reading until here, but most importantly now, its time to take action and get started on one of these habits. Get in touch and let me know on Instagram which one worked best for you
FDN LIFE >
AUTHOR
Ines Schuber
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