The subtitle, Build a Successful Career While Travelling Around the World, suggests slightly more than the book contains, but there’s a packed store of information. HOW TO BE A DIGITAL NOMAD tells how Kayla just decided she wasn’t having fun in her Chicago office job, and made a big change. She had no pressing need to leave home, and she also had no pressing need to stay. If she could work remotely from her office, she could probably do that from anywhere with a good wifi connection.

Not every boss will accept a worker who will join meetings from somewhere in another hemisphere and move cities often. Kayla doesn’t tell us how she found work – the biggest gap is what kind of work can be accomplished this way, aside from editing other people’s work or making Canva art. Where the account is strong is in personal lessons and serious lists, a worthwhile read for anyone working from home or on the road.

Whether you’re taking a gap year and trying to earn or committing to a career while travelling, today you can be a digital nomad. People have been doing this while cycling around America thirty years ago. Today, travel bloggers and vloggers are commonplace online. The best option seems to be the stability of a rented house – a home away from home – but if you want to be a remote worker on the move and on the cheap, there are opportunities to use a laptop with a café’s wifi connection or find a museum, airport, hostel or an Air B&B with a router. The hard part, Kayla explains, is travelling light enough and still having all you need, and then not losing anything or having it stolen. 

Top tips include getting work done the day before a deadline and sending it in, also cloud storage – you never know when the wifi will die or power will fade. Some countries are more stable than others, in terms of reliable connection, health services, transport, and frowning on bribes. But these countries are dearer to live in and may cost you more than you are earning. Another tip that Kayla emphasises is that you are travelling to enjoy your surroundings, so draw a line on the workday and go swimming. She adds that you won’t get work done while changing countries, and should prioritise being able to concentrate on visas, tickets, times and bags.

HOW TO BE A DIGITAL NOMAD encourages readers to join an online community, such as a LinkedIn group, before taking the plunge – and staying in the lifestyle group for encouragement. I feel this travel is best accomplished while young, and indeed, by the end Kayla and her partner are thinking about a settled life. I have read Nomadland about people who travel within America for work, living in RVs and found a lot of parallels. But Kayla Ihrig uses Google Translate while getting groceries.