Are you curious about the digital nomad lifestyle? Want to understand how a full-time traveler manages work and life on the road? Here’s how I make it work.
“What do you do all day?”
I get that question a lot. It’s always hard to answer because there’s no single “average” day for me. If you know me, you know I dislike strict schedules — and that’s a big reason I love the digital nomad lifestyle.
Saying “I work online and travel” often sparks curiosity. Calling myself a blogger leads to more questions, and when people realize I travel full-time the confusion grows. Blogging is a lot of work. I don’t work the same hours every day: some days I’ll put in very long shifts and other days I’ll work only briefly. There’s always something to do, and I maintain a long list of projects I’d like to tackle when time permits.
As with any business, it took time and effort to build mine. Now I have streamlined systems that help things run more smoothly and efficiently.
Side note: make sure you’re following me on Instagram!
The freedom to create my own schedule is one of the main benefits of my setup. Some days are packed — I might work from morning until late — and some days involve very little work. I’m human: I get distracted by social media, spend too much time petting our dogs, and binge TV occasionally. Since we now live on a boat, daily maintenance and boat-related tasks take up part of each day, even if I don’t list them all below.
People often ask, “How many hours do you work?” That answer varies widely. I’ve had weeks where I worked 100 hours and others where I barely worked more than a few hours. Some months are heavy; others are light.
Below is a typical day in my life as an online entrepreneur and full-time traveler.
Related articles on the digital nomad lifestyle:
- How I Run A Business While Traveling 365 Days a Year
- 9 Work From Home and Travel Careers
- How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog
- Why I Love Living In A Vehicle
Here’s my daily digital nomad routine:
8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. – Wake up
Wake-up times vary, but recently it’s been around 8:00–8:30 a.m. We get ready, feed the dogs, and make smoothies. While everyone is eating, I check and reply to as many emails as I can.
We take the dogs for a morning walk, usually about 30 minutes, though weather and circumstances change that. Because we don’t have a yard, frequent walks are essential. Letting them out multiple times a day is part of the routine, and it helps keep us all active.
10:00 a.m. – Work a little
After breakfast and the walk, I usually do a short work session. I prefer to use daylight hours to explore our surroundings, so daytime work is often limited to an hour or so. Morning tasks commonly include answering emails, replying to comments, coordinating with my assistant, reading relevant blog posts, and handling routine website tasks.
I receive hundreds of emails and make an effort to respond to every reader. Responses may be brief, point to a blog post that already answers the question, or include some quick research to help. Reader questions often inspire future posts.
11:00 a.m. – Podcasts and phone interviews
I try to schedule interviews and podcasts around this time to keep the rest of the day open. I don’t have interviews every day; sometimes I have several in a single day, and other times none for weeks. Availability depends on Wi‑Fi, cell service, and travel plans.
12:00 p.m. – Lunch
Lunch can be on the boat or out at a local spot. We tend to eat out more while traveling because we like trying local favorites. We usually have three main meals and snacks during the day.
Before or after lunch we’ll take another walk with the dogs. Because they don’t have a backyard, we often take long walks to tire them out and keep them happy.
1:00 p.m. – Explore and enjoy the area
Afternoons are frequently set aside for exploring. That might mean a long bike ride (Wes enjoys 50–100 miles while I prefer 40–50), hiking, rock climbing, visiting parks, or other outdoor activities. On heavier activity days we walk the dogs extra long so they’re content while we’re gone.
We don’t always bring the dogs on adventures — many parks don’t allow pets and some activities aren’t suited for older dogs. When we leave them on the boat, they have comfortable beds and climate control, so they’re safe and happy.
5:00 p.m. – Walk the dogs and dinner
After returning from activities we take another long walk, feed the dogs, and prepare our evening meal.
Evenings are often my most productive work time. Fewer daytime distractions and a relaxed atmosphere help me focus. Typical evening tasks include brainstorming content ideas, creating images for social platforms, managing Instagram, coordinating with assistants, optimizing articles, writing emails for subscribers, creating sponsored content, engaging in Facebook groups, checking ad performance, and developing freebies like printables or mini-courses.
9:00 p.m. – Final walk and wind-down
We usually take one last walk a few hours after sunset to enjoy cooler temperatures and settle the dogs before bed. Afterwards we wind down—sometimes bingeing a show or watching a YouTube video. We never used to watch TV, but small-town repairs and downtime led to restarting Netflix and we’ve kept it since.
Writing: how it fits into my schedule
I write every article myself. I don’t use a ghostwriter and don’t plan to. I enjoy writing and prefer to create content when I’m in the right headspace, so I typically batch-write. Some writing periods are intense — several articles in a day or many in a week — followed by stretches with no writing for weeks or months.
My article workflow looks like this:
- Idea generation: I keep a list of 100+ topic ideas on my devices, pulled from life experiences, reader questions, research, and interesting statistics.
- Editorial calendar: I schedule a month of topics and publish dates to ensure variety across themes like making money, saving money, and life improvement.
- Writing: I prefer to complete a post in one sitting when possible, then send it to my editor for polishing. The income reports are the only pieces I don’t have edited.
- Post-production: After editing I add images (Pinterest and Facebook), format the post, and link to related content on the site.
- Promotion: Once published I share the post across social platforms and schedule future shares on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
- Email: I notify subscribers when a new post goes live.
What does a busy day look like?
Busy days differ significantly from the relaxed schedule above. On heavy days I might work from the moment I wake up until bedtime, typically using batch work to focus on a single type of task: writing, email responses, article optimization, interviews, or other focused activities. A busy day often goes like this:
- Wake up, eat, walk dogs
- Work intensely
- Forced lunch break
- Walk dogs
- Back to work
- Forced dinner break
- Walk dogs
- Work more
- Final walk
- Work again, then bed
I genuinely enjoy my work and the lifestyle, so long workdays don’t feel like a burden. That said, having someone insist I take breaks is often necessary.
What do my assistants handle?
I used to manage nearly every aspect of the site myself, which was unsustainable. Building a reliable team has saved time and improved work-life balance. Key roles include:
- Editor: My editor reviews and polishes articles and course lessons, saving me time and improving quality.
- Virtual assistant: My VA manages community moderation, social scheduling, Pinterest image creation for older posts, support emails for my course, and various administrative tasks.
- Technical support: I pay for technical management to keep the site running smoothly and reliably.
Outsourcing expert tasks is well worth the investment — it lets me focus on strategy, content ideas, and the parts of the business I love.
Did anything here surprise you? If you had a flexible schedule, what would you do differently? What questions do you have about my workday as a digital nomad?