How can you create daily habits when you’re moving between cities and countries? In this guide I explain how I build my routine as a digital nomad.
One of the challenges of nomad life is that routine, which most people get for free just by having a fixed address and a commute, requires actual effort when your environment keeps changing.
After many years as a digital nomad, I can say that building routines in every new city I travel to is priceless. It’s become an essential part of my digital nomad lifestyle.
In this guide, I’ll explain how I do it and how it saves me time and mental fatigue.
I write about my own experience of course, so feel free to tweak and adapt things to fit your own style of nomadic life.
Table of contents
Why I build a routine as a digital nomad
The usual anchors of daily life just aren’t there when you move to a new city.
Getting to know a new city takes time.
Navigating the public transport system, getting used to a new apartment, finding the shops, restaurants, bars, coworking spaces, gym, and social meetups you need – these are all time consuming.
In some cities it only takes a couple of days to get used to the new environment. It helps if the city is compact.
In big cities like Seoul or Tokyo, it took me about a week to get my bearings.
Decision fatigue is real and I’ve experienced it many times.
It’s a psychological theory that says that when you have many decisions to make in one day, you get mentally tired and are more likely to make mistakes.
That’s why you don’t want to waste too much mental energy on making decisions.
Routines rely on daily habits and remove low-stakes decisions from the queue entirely, saving your best thinking for what actually matters.
Adapting to a new city
When I arrive in a new city I spend a few days and up to a week on getting to know the place, adapting, and orientating.
Each city has its own rhythm.
- The things that affect my daily routine in a new city include:
- The time zone. This is important for online meetings, deadlines, etc.
- Local opening hours of shops, attractions, and things I want to do in the city. In Barcelona locals go out to dinner at 10 pm and in London pubs serve the last drinks at 11 pm.
- The weather, especially when it gets dark.
- The size of the city. In big cities I have to account for having to spend a long time on public transport each day, while in compact cities I can often walk.
My daily routine template
Most advice about routines assumes you have a fixed life. Live in the same city and go to the same office each day.
For nomads, that assumption falls apart pretty quickly, which is why so many productivity systems feel like they were designed for someone else.
My daily routine as a digital nomad creates predictability within my day. It’s not a minute-by-minute schedule, but a general structure.
When I arrive in a new city, I don’t need to build an entire new routine from scratch. I use one core routine and adapt it on the go.
The core routine
The basic daily routine typically includes:
- A good morning routine with some exercise, a good breakfast, and time to contemplate.
- Time for focused work. I aim to do the hardest tasks first.
- Time for seeing the city, going to museums, parks, etc.
- Social life, usually in the evening.
That’s it. It doesn’t sound too ambitious, does it? But it works because it’s so simple. This way I make sure that all the most important things are covered.
On top of these, you can add whatever you want and adjust the routine as you like.
Also add any special interest activities, excursions, festivals, or anything else that breaks the daily routine from time to time.
It’s important to remember that a portable routine is built around behaviours, not locations.
It doesn’t depend on a specific desk or a particular café or the gym around the corner.
Wherever I am, I make sure my daily routine checks all the boxes.
Do you need a rigid daily schedule?
There’s a difference between a daily routine and a rigid daily schedule.
A rigid schedule is needed if you’re a remote worker with fixed work hours, online meetings that you must attend, and so on.
In that case, your schedule is dictated by your workplace and you can build the rest of your daily routine around that.
If you’re a freelancer or run your own business, you can normally be more flexible with your time.
As long as I allocate enough time to get my work done when my energy levels are high enough to focus, that’s fine by me.
I hardly ever restrict myself to working only at specific hours because in my experience, a rigid daily schedule is likely to fail when you’re nomadic.
Useful tips on building your routine as a digital nomad
I’ve gathered all sorts of tips and tricks over the years that helped me stay productive and build my routine as a digital nomad.
How to use anchors
An anchor is a repeated behaviour that you aim to protect regardless of what else is going on. For example, it might be a 20-minute walk before you open your laptop, or a 10-minute journal at the end of the work day.
Anchors are important because they give you a sense of continuity when you move around.
They’re easy to maintain even when you’ve just arrived at a new place and haven’t figured out your entire routine there yet.
how to plan according to energy levels
Most people have a reasonably clear sense of when they do their best thinking.
Some people are sharp in the morning and fuzzy by mid-afternoon. Others take until noon to properly wake up but can sustain deep focus into the evening.
As a nomad, if you’re freelancing or running your own business, you’re free to design your work day around your energy levels.
I have a time window of clarity and peak focus a couple of hours after I wake up in the morning, so I use it for the harder work tasks.
These are any tasks that require concentration (like writing this post), replying to important emails, data analysis, and so on.
I include travel planning in that peak focus time window.
Many of the tasks like booking transport and researching new destinations require that high level of energy.
Next, I set aside easier or mindless tasks for other times of the day when I’m not as focused, so I don’t waste my energy on them.
It sounds obvious but it makes an enormous difference.
How to handle the first week in a new place
In the first week you’re figuring out where to get food, a sim card, a good coffee, and a bus pass.
I take a lot of orientation walks in the first few days. A city tour is always a good idea, and every big or medium-sized city I’ve been to has a free walking tour.
In the first week I make sure to find myself some kind of a social life in a new city, usually through meetups I find on meetup.com or Facebook groups.
Give yourself a lighter first week when it comes to daily routines, because that’s when you’re gathering information to help you design the best routine for that specific city.
Protect your anchors. Travel isn’t an excuse to avoid consistency. Still, remember that during the first few days in a new place, you can’t expect full productivity.
How to notice when a routine has stopped working
Sometimes routines simply fade. It’s happened to me quite a few times.
You skip one thing, then another. You tell yourself you’ll get back to it after the move, after this busy week, etc. I’m sure you know what it’s like.
The tricky part is that a fading routine can look a lot like a normal busy period. So it helps to know what you’re actually looking for.
A few signals:
Busyness instead of productivity: The day fills up, tasks get done, but at the end of the week you can’t point to anything that genuinely moved the needle.
You’re more irritable than usual: Routines do a lot of emotional regulation work. When they erode, the first sign is often a mood shift. I’ve experienced this quite a few times and now I know what to attribute it to.
You’ve stopped doing physical exercise: This one is pretty obvious. No matter what kind of exercise you choose, once you neglect to do it, your routine is probably fading.
The days have stopped having a shape: That’s when you find yourself working late into the night instead of going out or resting, or when weekdays are indistinguishable from weekends.
None of these signals mean you’ve failed. They just mean it’s time for a reset, which is a normal and recurring part of nomad life.
That’s when you have to sit down and adapt your routine to your new circumstances.
Do you have any more tips on building a routine as a digital nomad? Share them in the comments.