Part One of Productivity on the Road: How to Stay in Flow While Traveling

Layne Martin
Oct 20
3 min read

Here I am working hard in Sint Maarten. I recommend that you do not smoke cigarettes in Sint Maarten like I did.

Especially not two packs at a time. I quit four years ago at the end of this month and you can too!

If you’ve ever tried to “work from anywhere” and found that your productivity takes a nosedive as soon as you change time zones, you’re not alone.

So this is the first in a three-part series about how I stay productive as a digital nomad after ten years of learning the hard way.

Because the twin goals are to get work done and life experienced while bouncing around the globe.

1. Be intentional about work-life balance and time management

When you’re mobile, your usual routines can easily go out the window. So my first rule: build a flexible structure that works for you.

Know when you’re most productive.
- A large survey found that about 40% of people say they get most done between 9 a.m.–11 a.m. on a regular workday (Deputy).
- I, on the other hand, am a die-hard night owl. 🦉🤷‍♀️ 🌘
- You do you.

In a new locale, take the first few days to adapt your usual structure to the new reality.
- If I'm in London in the winter, I might want to take advantage of the blink-and-you-miss-them daylight hours for walks along the Regent's Canal Towpath and other places you don't go alone at night. Then I settle in for deep work at 4pm when it’s dark outside and the team in San Francisco wakes up.
- In Dubai in August (yes, I did that—I know, I know), I rolled with the Emerati contingent who runs all their errands after dark. Everything from grocery stores to movie theaters are open late so you can hide from the life-threatening heat. There's even a night beach with flood lights and 24-hour lifeguards. So I holed up inside when the evil ball of fire was in the sky and did my work then.
Once you have the gist of your new normal for the current destination, plan your calendar.
- Absolutely build in time to be spontaneous, but research shows people get more done and have higher life satisfaction when they take the time to set clear intentions and lay out how they plan to achieve them.
- I sketch out a weekly calendar on Sundays. It's a sketch because I can't be too rigid about planning a full seven days in advance. But I also need an overview that helps me estimate whether I really have time to do as much as I have ambitions to do. It also helps me gauge whether I'm ahead, behind, or on track throughout the workweek.
- Then I take a few minutes at the end of each work day to finalize tomorrow’s schedule.
- This helps me make sure that neither work nor fun falls through the cracks. So I don't ever have to leave a place feeling like I didn’t actually get to explore it. Or like it ate all my business goals for the quarter and spit the bones in my face!
- Bonus: If you want to get into tools, this article explains how I organize and delegate individual tasks and meetings with tools like Asana and Google Calendar.