Digital Nomad: summer basics, 2017

Ago 14, 2017

Most of us, people that works on digital services (developers, sysadmins, devops...), have a great privilege: work remotely. And I say "most" because not everyone is allowed to that way of work. For me it's like a dream come true.

To be honest, I'm working from remote most of the time because all the friends and mates we're working with are around the world, but the ability to move myself with the family in summer makes the year much much better.

The other years I've "implemented" this "summer digital nomad" stuff I've thought that just carrying the laptop on was good enough but, somehow, I was wrong. In fact you will probably need some other gadgets too. These are my basic things:

Laptop, of course, you just can't work without it, it's the main piece of this puzzle.
MiFi + Data Plan. MiFi is the gadget that shares the 3G/4G with your laptop mostly vía WIFI. You should find a good data plan that fits your needs. Last year I've took, IIRC, 3Gb/month and it was not enough. This year I took 25Gb and it was too much (I've consumed the 48% approx), so, in fact, it depends on you.
External hard drive for backups. Shit happens, and usually it happens when you least expect it so, just pick up an external usb drive and run the backups daily, it doesn't require much effort and it can save you the day (or the holidays).
A bunch of different wires and adapters. As you're not in your usual environment you should think about your requirements. If you need some kind of SD/microSD adaptor, some special wires, ethernet, usba-usbc, headphones, hdmi...
The Smartphone (or a normal phone). Maybe you need to talk from time to time with your customers. I assume that everyone is carrying a phone but think about a SIP/VoIP client, instant messaging, email client... in some cases a message or an image is better than a call :)
Moleskine + pen, analogic work also worth it on vacation. Particularly these elements are very important in my holidays because my mind seems to be working on background while the fun happens, so it's good to have them around to write down the good ideas that, unexpectedly, come up.
An external mouse. I'm not a mouse fan, but I must admit it's better to have one close to you for certain tasks. Up to you.
A schedule. Do not torture yourself, it's summer and there are lots of fun things waiting for you out there. Organize your time, get the shit done and just have fun!.

And as extra...

Some books to read. Appart from the fun and the work, give to your mind something interesting according your flavors. This time I've choosen techie stuff, "Practical Vim" and "Tmux, Productive mouse-free development". Perfecto!.
ChromeCast, Arduino, Raspberry... Nobody wants to lose the track of your favorite TV series, or just play some retro-games if the weather is not good enough, keep in mind. This year I've forgotten them at home but luckily the weather didn't fail.

In short, this is what works for me, probably your basic requirements are different, but remember, if you can work from remote, just do it, enjoy it and have looots of fun. The summer is too short.

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