Giving Up Your Frantic World – Guide to Being a Digital Nomad in Bali

Bali is a major draw in Indonesia’s tourism sector. It is a small island yet contributes a lot to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. Many tourists have no second thoughts about coming back to feel the richness of the island. Its popularity causes more and more stylish cafés and accommodations to grow.  With alluring views of beaches, mountains, waterfalls, and rice fields here and there, it is not surprising that the province becomes one among 33 others that is flock with digital nomads and newcomers.

Are you interested in remote working and being a digital nomad in Bali? Here’s what you need to know.

Digital Nomad – New Trend of the Young Generations

The pandemic has reshaped the way we want to run our life, including our working style. Many companies have also started to give serious consideration to adapting to fully remote work. People say it is the future of work. Now, what remote work actually is? Working remotely carries a broader meaning than working from home (WFH).  Basically, you are given the authority to choose any place as your workplace -it could be a coworking space, a café, a library, a villa, a beach, even.

The concept of remote working has been gaining popularity long before the coronavirus became its catalyst. To be bluntly speaking, the pandemic makes people now have a glimpse of the convenience remote working brings. Knowing what it tastes like, we bet things will be hard to go back to how they used to. No more daily commute or flying miles away for business travel.

Today, as remote working becomes the desire of every young generation, they see companies that allow this policy to flourish to be one of the reasons why they have no doubts applying.

From employees’ point of view, remote working opens up their opportunity to:

• Realize their work-life balance dream
• Have more control over their working environment
• Prevent them from the stress to commute and the drama at work (they can solely focus on their responsibilities)
• Find more job opportunities
• Be more flexible with their time management

From the perspective of employers, the benefits of remote working include:

• Bringing out more productivity to the employees, according to a study by Standford University
• Resuming the business with no worries of the pandemic
• Providing an attractive offer for the millennial applicants (this target group has more tendency to prefer remote working) and employees
• Enabling the employees to have a better work-life balance lifestyle
• No longer commuting with land, air, or water transportations helps protect the environment in the long run
• Hiring new employees from around the world
• Helping them cut costs for real estate and transportation

Work and Live Balance. Doing Work in Paradise , Bali , Indonesia

Imagine having the privilege to do your work from anywhere and anytime you wanted to. You have control over changing your working environments. It feels you are on vacay every day! What matters for a digital nomad is to submit their high-quality work as scheduled. Therefore, you can definitely arrange your perfect picture of work-life balance given the privilege you own. There are challenges too when it comes to being a digital nomad. Those are as follows:

• the difficulty to connect with what is going around in the organization,
• feeling isolated and lonely since you are unable to intensely socialize and you are on your own most of the time,
• the dangers of not knowing when to stop working because you are in control of your time,
• not yet the distractions.

To avoid these from happening, you need to ensure that:

#1 You have found the perfect spot for work.

Instead of lounging by the pool (you could if you wanted to), try organizing your work desk. The point is to keep you out of distractions so you can gather your focus to finish your work one step at a time before heading off for leisure.

#2 Stick to the schedule arrangement you have set up to give you time boundaries for work.

The benefit of remote working is that time is all yours to have. You can even arrange for 4 to 5 hours of work per day. But of course, make those 4 to 5 hours as productive as you can to catch on to your deadlines.

#3 Don’t work in your pajamas

Create a routine resembling the day you have to go for work on site. As much as how comfortable your pajama makes you feel, your mental state will also be triggered to feel unprofessional. Dressing up helps you to make a difference that right now you are in your serious mode and you have some work to get done.

#4 Don’t forget breakfast, stay hydrated, and take a couple of breaks.

Don’t you think work is harder when you are quite distracted by the sound your stomach makes when it is so hungry? Because you are sitting for a few hours, you need to maintain your body’s hydration as well.  Drink your water frequently to avoid kidney stones and constipation.

#5 Stay in touch with your colleagues.

Arrange regular virtual meetings to communicate with your colleagues about your projects and difficulties. Use the given opportunities to socialize and fill the gap in your relationship with them.

Bali Is an Ideal Place for Digital Nomads and Start-Ups

Now, are you ready to pick your remote working destination? We might be biased at this, but we are pretty positive that you cannot quite find a place like Bali.  It is just hard to match the laid-back lifestyle, the inexpensive cost of living, the humble citizens, the stunning culture, and how it can afford the foreigners a luxury. Olumide Gbenro, in his interview with CNBC, claimed that Bali only costs him around $600 per month. That value is enough for him to live in all modesty in San Diego. However, with that same amount he can provide higher life quality for himself in Bali.  The amount is more than enough to pay out his entertainment and daily needs; eating in and out, food ordering, traveling, and so on. We say, once you master how to manage your expense in Bali, you still have more rooms to save up!

Today, as he enlarges the scope of his marketing business from San Diego (established in 2018) to Bali. He also offers his service to help people market their properties in Indonesia to be qualified in receiving an investor visa; he also participates in the development of the local economy. With the decent living cost, good access to entertainment and public conveniences, the availability of an international airport, and great internet connectivity, you will have no trouble pursuing your dream to be a digital nomad in Bali.

We hope you found our tips useful to give you a light on how to tackle the nitty-gritty of remote working and being a digital nomad from anywhere you choose to be. Also, don’t forget to check out our latest article, there is also about Bali releasing new traveling policies on self-quarantine free and visa on arrival here.

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/12/this-33-year-old-left-the-us-for-bali-now-he-lives-on-74-a-day.html

https://www.workplace.com/blog/working-remotely#how-do-you-work-remotely