The Digital Nomad Survival Guide
By Peter Knudson and Katherine Conaway
The Digital Nomad Survival Guide features practical advice from personal experience, conversations with successful digital nomads, packing lists, sample budgets, app recommendations, website suggestions, and more.
This is the book we wish we had read a few years ago. While there is a lot of information available for free, online about how to travel or work remotely, it’s hard to know where to start and what will work best for you. And it can take hours to find it.
Whether you dream of freedom from your desk, are hoping to become a suitcase entrepreneur, or are simply excited to explore the world, you’ll find practical advice and helpful resources in our book.
The Digital Nomad Survival Guide will teach you:
How to determine your budget and what financial resources are most useful abroad
The best and worst places to visit as a digital nomad while you travel the world
How to find the best travel and housing options for your lifestyle
What pieces of technology you absolutely need and how to work from wherever
Where to find friends and how to avoid being lonely on the road
What should you pack for months on the road
… and more.
Chapters
Finances
Location Scouting
Housing
Travel & Transportation
Jobs & Working
Technology
Packing & Possessions
Lifestyle
Local Culture
Social & Relationships
Behind the Book
In February 2016, I met Peter in Montevideo, Uruguay, as we were both members of Remote Year's second ever group, Battuta. I've been a digital nomad since June 2014, traveling full-time while working remotely as a freelance writer, consultant, and producer. He worked as a product manager and consultant for gaming companies in San Francisco.
Katherine and Peter with other Remote Year Battutas in Paris in 2016
With Remote Year, we traveled together to Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and Croatia. Peter then left the program and traveled on his own around SE Asia, visiting Bali, Thailand, and Vietnam. I remained on Remote Year, going to Kuala Lumpur, Koh Phangan, Phnom Penh, and Ho Chi Minh City.
In October 2016, when I was in Kuala Lumpur and Peter was in Bali, he reached out to ask me to collaborate on a new project: a book about how to become a digital nomad — a kind of survival guide for beginners.
He’d joined several digital nomad Facebook groups, a nomad Slack group, and worked in various coworking spaces. He kept seeing similar questions arise again and again, and while there are already countless blogs and even some books that address them, he felt that there was still an unmet need for a resource with real, practical advice.
Four months after our first call, just after the end of Remote Year, we published The Digital Nomad Survival Guide (available on Amazon Kindle and in print).
How to Write a Good Book Fast:
From Brainstorming to Publishing
As project managers, both Peter and I are very organized, strategic people. Instead of aimlessly writing thousands of words, we defined the book parameters upfront, assigned each other tasks, gathered our content & ideas, and created a style guide to ensure that the book was a cohesive whole — before we officially started writing.
Our approach empowered us to go from an idea to 40,000 words and published on Amazon in 3.5 months, while working full-time and traveling the world. Writing doesn’t have to be a miserable experience, and it is very possible to write well, quickly.
Curious about how to write a book (or anything else) efficiently? Check out my in-depth case study about our process or one of my workshops, both online and in-person.