Social networks can be funny and even useful, if well managed, also for your working life.
Digital nomading and freelancing can be indeed detrimental for your private life, if not well managed.
As usual I won’t take it seriously but I’ll try to give you some tips on how to find (back) your lost personal balance and identity, working as a digital nomad, also using your social media accounts.
Making a job that you like, even a creative one, with no scheduled hours but always (or at least often) subject to time changes is stimulating.
It’s funny.
It’s inspiring.
Making a job that allows you to work from no matter where is exciting.
It’s a gift.
It’s something to be wildly grateful for.
But let’s face the truth: a freelance and digital nomad life can also prevent us from finding a true stability and personal life balance.
Personally, I re-schedule my working rhythms, hours, plans twice a month, at least.
I have to set the borders between my private life/working life at least 3 times a year.
Do you have my same issue?
Actually those who choose to go freelance and digital nomad don’t have a great relationship with the idea of balance and regularity. But let’s focus on 2 aspects:
- in order to live and work well, in order not face too many burnout periods, we must find a (kind of) balance;
- Those who go freelance and digital nomad didn’t necessarily decide to do so: they just had to, because of the new market rules, because of the new economy and also to face the unemployment issue. Most of us had to accept the new working reality, not created by us, and taking/making the best out of it without complaining for instability.
I’m not kidding when I say that I’m sure that in 10 years some new branch of psychology will study the consequences of the digital nomadism on workers who have experienced it for the first 20 years.
I’ll tell you about my main issues:
The way you tell about yourself and your job
I really trust the sentence: I am not my job.
When I ask someone “tell me about yourself” I don’t like to be answered “I work as [fill the blanks]”.
I like people to tell me what they love and what they don’t, where they have travelled, what’s their passion.
But this is not a very much shared position, and I am aware that most of people still start from job “definitions” to start a conversation.
And let’s be true, for a digital nomad, describing his/her job it’s difficult, mainly when it comes to explaining about social media, remote work, blogs, digital marketing, apps and so on to people over their forties.
Personally, my mom has only recently understood about my present job, while my father still describes me as a journalist/translator (for those who still don’t know it, I’m a blogger [used to be a journalist and translator – and I still work as translator even if as a secondary job].
Tip #1 – tweet your worker’s identity
I know this might sound trivial, but I think that in order to feel better with your own worker’s identity you shoud
- find and exact definition, in 3 words, of your job
- find and learn by heart an explanation in 120 characters of what you actually do. Yes, 120 characters: I suggest you to write it on twitter.
This way you’ll have a very fast definition of yourself ready to be used when you tell someone what’s your job about.
Making your working geographic position a safe place
You are messy, aren’t you?
If you weren’t so in the past, you’ve become messy just after you started your freelance and digital nomad job, am I right?
I know that working from home/hotels and homes all over the world/co working spaces can be challenging. But remember that your computer is the only thing you can see as an office.
Keep it safe, tidy, welcoming… just like in the instagram working stations’ pics!
Tip #2 – make your work station look the same as in your instagram pics
Here you can read some tips on
how to organize your nomad working space
On the importance of people for your daily motivation
One of the challenges I’ve been facing as a freelance digital nomad is working alone, after several years working in constant touch with other people.
This change is something that I am grateful for (I’m faster with deliveries, less people to influence my daily goals…) and other times something that’s like a curse (solving my working problems alone, no people to make a good creative brainstorming with etc…).
I think that the habits of working in co-wo spaces is healthy for a good freelance digital nomad career!
When I can’t, but I need creative ideas and I absolutely must share/exchange insights, I ask for an opinion in one of the Facebook groups I joined.
The reasons why I do love these facebook groups are:
- they are made up by people from different countries, who make (more-or-less) the same job as you
- they are made up by people with a different career and experience levels, so…
- … it’s like having a virtual room where to have feedbacks by other colleagues.
- Generally the “positivity rule” must be respected: no negative attitudes and no iper criticism are allowed by the admins (i.e. these groups are the only hidden Facebook corners where discomfort doesn’t rule!)
Tip #3 – Join Facebook groups (or create them)
to have tips and insights from people making the same job as you
Does anyone shares my same issue in life/working balances?
Would you suggest me any other good way to find (back) a life balance as a digital nomad?
12 Comments
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Lyubka Henry
Very good post! I’ve been a freelancer for the past 10 years and I know how important it is to find a good balance!
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Crizzy Kiss
This is sooo true! Blogging is exciting at the beginning until things become so overwhelming that we can get burned down if we don’t have good personal balance.
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Ana De- Jesus
So true my workspace is messy but that is because I live in a tiny little box room , your space is how you make it to be.
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Barbara Chapman
Thank you for posting this. I have never thought too much about social balance before.
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Eugenia
This is a great alternative for those who is fed up with working in a stuffy office all day! Being a nomad has its pros and cons, but, as you said, it is so stimulating and inspiring! And, yes, it’s so challenging, just like everything else in life! Finding a life and working balance can be tough, I think we should all start learning to live on the balance and not just have our online work with us all the time.
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Ana
Hey Sabrina,
Your writing is inspirational!
At times, it is very difficult to make people understand our work as its very sad that blogging is still not considered as a respected full-time job! People have a stereotype thinking that blogging is just a hobby. I believe that Freelancers and bloggers are different from the masses as they have guts to live their life on their rules and follow their dreams!
xoxo,
Ana -
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Empire
I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot. I think many people working on social media get consumed by their online life
Tiina A
Personal balance is so important and so is to get rid of all that clutter around you. My desk is easil ygetting messy and that makes me feel restless and not creative at all. I need a well-organized place to get soemthing good to delivery.