The typical image of a digital nomad living a location independent lifestyle is like the one above. You, your laptop, a beach chair and a cold beer or cocktail somewhere on the horizon. But have you every tried to read a screen in bright sunshine?

Seriously though, I have been a fan of the location independent movement since I read Tim Ferriss' best selling book The Four Hour Work Week back in 2008 and even had my own taste of location independence with a move to the south of Spain for a year while working virtually with clients in the UK. 

But while the experience was amazing, sometimes it was not the more productive way to run a business, something brilliantly recorded by blogger Jonathan Fields in his recent Renegade Workflow experiment, Blogging in Bali. I found, as Jonathan did, that sun, sea and sand can be amazingly distracting and you can feel a real distance between yourself and your clients.

This is why I was thrilled to read Corbett Barr from Free Pursuit's post yesterday on living a part-time location independent life. Corbett and his family have a permanent base in San Francisco but have built flexibility into their businesses that allows they to travel for extended periods. he gives some great practical advice on how you can build your business to do the same. Read the full article here.

I think this is the approach that myself and my partner Alex, who is an artist and architect, will take. Keep our base in London, at the heart of the digital and creative sectors, but aim to take extended periods of travel and work on projects while we are away that don't require as much interaction with clients such as book writing (Alex) or course development (me).

Our first trip will be South East Asia this winter so watch this space!