A typical workday for digital nomad Sonya Collins

For this installment of “A Typical Workday,” I chatted with Sonya Collins, a freelance journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, who covers scientific and medical research. Collins spends three months each year working from an overseas location as a digital nomad. This year, she worked from South Africa and Kenya. Last year, she worked from Southeast Asia and Japan.

Collins discusses life as a digital nomad, from planning her stays to a typical workday. This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Where do you stay when working from another country?

I stay in what’s called a co-living space or a co-living house. It is communal living in that you share a kitchen with other people, and there is usually a co-working space, but you have your own room and your own bathroom. All amenities are targeted towards solo travelers who are working, so these places promise comfort, high speed internet and a clean kitchen.

Does it get lonely?

In co-living houses, you instantly make friends with people who are doing the exact same thing that you’re doing, working during the day and wanting to explore at night and weekends.

How do you find co-living houses?

There is a website called coliving.com, but it is not at all comprehensive. So it takes me ages to find choices. These places are targeted towards people much younger than myself. (I’m 48, and I don’t have kids, and so I have the flexibility to do this.) That means these places are advertised on social media. I look on Instagram, and I’m in an amazing group on Facebook called Female Digital Nomads, which has over 90,000 members. I’ve gone into this group and said, ‘Ladies, I want to go somewhere for the month of July. And here’s what it has to have: public transportation or be walkable or bike-able and a co-living house where I can stay.’ I give a wish list. These are women from all over the world who are also living all over the world, and so you’ve got this amazing convergence of experiences and perspectives.

How hard do you work when abroad? 

I tend to say yes to absolutely every assignment that comes my way when I’m in Atlanta. When I’m traveling, I may say no a little bit to things so that I can have a more comfortable work-life balance because I’m there to enjoy these places.

Do you line up your assignments before you leave?

Usually at the beginning of a three-month trip, I have a month to a month-and-a-half of work already lined up. And that’s the workflow for me when I’m home, too. Then, while I’m there, I will start to line up the next six weeks of work. 

Do you tell editors you’re working from another country?

I’ve got some editors who follow me on social media, and they think that my lifestyle is really cool, and so I’ll tell them. But then, I have some editors who don’t really think outside of the box, and I’m afraid that if I told them, ‘I’m in Kenya right now,’ they would think I was on vacation and wouldn’t give me work. If they stopped giving me work, I’d be screwed. 

Do you do any local reporting when overseas?

Just about every place I go, I find a story to report on while I’m there, and I do that for two reasons. Number one is because I think it is an amazing way to see the place. The other reason is it makes me have absolutely no qualms about writing the trip off of my taxes. 

Where do you set up your office?

Even in my regular Atlanta life, I mix it up between working from home and going to cafes or co-working spaces.. When I travel, I make sure that the place I’m living in has a comfortable space to work. But I typically also join an outside co-working space, which is usually filled with travelers, expats, digital nomads. It’s a place for me to find a community and make friends. 

What equipment do you bring with you?

I bring my laptop, noise-canceling earbuds, earplugs and my notebook, and that’s pretty much all I need.  

How do you conduct your interviews with people back in the U.S.?

I use Google Meet. Also, I have a plan that lets me use my phone while I’m abroad, so I can FaceTime sources and I can call them. 

How do you arrange your typical workday when abroad?

The only thing that would be typical is that I give myself a lot more flexibility and grace compared to working at home. When I’m here in Atlanta, I pretty much stick to an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule. But when I am abroad, I tell myself that all I really have to do is make sure that the work gets done and that it doesn’t have to happen from 9 to 5 in that country’s time zone.

When I was in Thailand, I took a Tai Chi class every morning, and sometimes I would go out for coffee or a brunch with people afterwards. So, you may actually not start your work day until noon, and that may mean working a little later into the evening.

I also have to be flexible because I’m doing interviews in different time zones. I might schedule my whole work day around that and enjoy the day and work in the evening.

How do you stay focused?

I find myself to be hyper-focused when I’m traveling. I’m so happy and feeling like I am absolutely aligned with what I want to be doing in the world that it gives me energy and motivation. Back in Atlanta, I’m distracted by all the BS that I have to do around my house, like laundry and fixing stuff.

Can you recommend a digital nomad blog or podcast? 

My blog is Another Island. There are posts that are like the manual for how to be a digital nomad. I like a Youtube channel/podcast/blog called Freelance Blueprint. The woman who runs it interviews a different type of freelancer each week, including digital nomads. 

What do you do about medical insurance?   

I use travel insurance. I want to be covered if I need any kind of emergency care in that country, if I need to be flown home for a medical emergency, if the rest of my trip had to be canceled because of my health. Also, my parents are aging, and so, I want to be covered if they need me to fly home because of their health. You can get a Cadillac of health insurance and pay $20 a day for it, or you can get something that is more bare bones but covers those things that I described, and it may be more like $5 a day.

I do not take the insurance that’s offered when you click purchase on your airline ticket. I look for something that is targeted towards digital nomads or expats.

How do you find a good doctor when you’re abroad?

I would usually ask other expats, and I would ask the co-working place or the co-living place. 

Do you have to save up to make these trips happen?

No. I either rent my condo out in Atlanta to visiting professors or graduate students, or I put it on long-term Airbnb, and so my mortgage is paid while I’m gone. And of course I’m working while I’m gone. And for the most part, every place I travel to is actually cheaper than Atlanta.

Any final advice?

If you’re planning on working while you travel, you can’t randomly pick a place you’ve always wanted to go as a tourist. You have to make sure that the place that you’re going has — and I learned this the hard way — reliable electricity and Internet.