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The recent years have given rise to the trend of digital nomads, allowing individuals to work remotely from anywhere in the world, while travelling around the globe in the process. But as education becomes more flexible and accessible, a new lifestyle trend has started to emerge in the form of nomadic students. This new generation of international students aims to spend their youth travelling the world and exploring all the beauty it has to offer, while still devoting themselves to their studies in an effort to secure a degree from wherever they please.
In case you are a nomadic student yourself, or you’re simply attracted by this new lifestyle, here are some useful and efficient tools that will help any student streamline their responsibilities while travelling full-time:
7 Tools for Nomadic Students to Enable Studying While Travelling
Online schooling options
While studying in a foreign country or utilising volunteering programs are always great options, they usually require you to spend a longer period of time in one location, which might not be an ideal option if travelling full-time is your goal. Instead, a better solution might be to find universities that offer online classes and degrees, which you could easily complete remotely, without needing to physically attend college at all. Apart from giving you more time to travel around the world, the nature of such schooling options means you might be able to enrol in foreign universities as well, allowing you to potentially find better and more suitable programs for your personal wishes and goals.
Best accommodation solutions
When you’re taking a semester abroad, finding a good yet cheap stay is easy, as most universities around the world offer student accommodation on or near campus. However, if you’ve decided to take online classes while travelling full-time, you’ll be looking for more flexible accommodation. Shared accommodation is affordable and Wi-Fi is often free at traditional backpacking style accommodation. Investing in some noise cancelling headphones so you can study in your shared room or in the communal spaces around the accommodation is probably a good idea. Staying in this type of accommodation means you’ll meet other nomadic students and other like-minded people who want to explore the local area. Finding people to travel with also means you could save money on renting a car for example.
Useful organisational tools
Getting a degree always requires focus, dedication, and hundreds of hours of work. In order to succeed in your studies, staying organised is truly essential, but it becomes even more important when you combine regular student work with full-time travelling. To help you create an efficient schedule and stay on track, you might want to utilise some helpful organisation apps like Microsoft’s To Do or Todoist for making necessary to-do lists, or even useful calendar applications for streamlining your workdays. Many students have also found that apps like Evernote are quite handy when it comes to combining tasks, to-do lists, and academic notes, for more productive study sessions.
Helpful resources for learning
Although most students tend to be short on time, nomadic students might find it even more difficult to devote themselves to their studies. To that end, any travelling student could be in dire need of tools and resources that will make their learning process faster and more efficient. One of the best ways to achieve that is to take a look at the University of Manchester projects, study notes, and past assignments. This database is filled with high-quality resources from a prestigious university pertaining to nearly all subjects, meaning you could effortlessly find papers and other tools that will help you to complete your assignments more efficiently. And as this resource is entirely online, you can easily access it no matter where you are in the world.
Software for better writing
Regardless of the particular subject you have decided to study, chances are you will be required to write a number of different papers, assignments, and other projects. And the fact that you won’t be able to regularly meet with any tutors or assistants might mean that making a lasting impression is that much more difficult to achieve. For that reason, you will have to express your ideas in writing as clearly as possible, and produce flawless projects each time. Thankfully, there are several proofreading and editing software options that will allow you to do just that, such as Grammarly or the Hemingway App.
Apps for staying focused
Juggling your studies while travelling can be an incredibly difficult and stressful task. Even if you’ve managed to construct a clear and efficient schedule, sticking to your plans can still be challenging due to all the distractions that new travel opportunities might present. In case you’re prone to searching for flights and new travel destinations during study time, distraction-blocking apps like Freedom or Cold Turkey Blocker might help you to stay focused on your work. On the other hand, if a lack of study motivation is the issue, applications such as Forest and Motivate could inspire you to focus on your studies and give you that necessary drive to finish all your assignments, leaving more free time for travel and leisure.
Great budgeting options
Simply attending a university can turn out to be quite an expensive decision for many. But once you add full-time travel into the equation, budgeting, being smart with your money, and travelling cheaply might all become essential aspects of your life. Thankfully, there are many steps you can take in order to lower your daily expenses. For instance, travelling by bus or train, using public transport, finding cheap accommodation, or even getting a part-time weekend job can allow you to save some much-needed money for frequent travel. In addition, there are also plenty of smart applications like Mint or PocketGuard that will allow you to create efficient budgeting and spending plans for your nomadic student needs.
Even though travelling the world might be one of the most liberating and enjoyable experiences in life, it can also get quite stressful and demanding once you combine it with full-time studying. Hopefully, the helpful tips mentioned above will allow you to learn how to budget, create an efficient schedule, and utilise some handy tools, giving you the opportunity to effortlessly become a happy and successful nomadic student.
Author: Lilly Miller is a Sydney-based graphic designer and a passionate writer. Loves everything about home decor, art history and baking. Shares home with two loving dogs and a gecko named Rodney. You can find her hanging out on Twitter.
