There’s a significant difference between a remote worker and a digital nomad. Yet, a lot of people mix up those two terms.
Let me make a definition:
- Remote worker: someone who is working remotely. Doesn’t per se mean he/she is a nomad!
- Digital nomad: just a new and fancy term for a backpacker, who is working while on the go — mostly from his/her laptop.
Every digital nomad is indeed a remote worker, but not every remote worker is a digital nomad. Without working remotely a digital nomad would just be a simple nomad, better known as a backpacker.
This said remote workers and digital nomads are two fundamentally different sets of people.
Most remote workers have a family, kids, and just love the freedom of working from where and when they like. Digital nomads are mostly independent young people who like traveling (mostly backpacking) and realized that they do not need to take vacation days anymore to pursue their passion by finding a remote job.
Therefore, I consider myself a part-time digital nomad. Besides working full-time for a well-known enterprise company, I like to travel and making things on the internet. This results for me in having a lot of side-projects going on at the same time. I need the freedom of scheduling my own time while traveling to stay productive and getting my side-projects done. It’s my own personal life-hack.
Let me know what you think.