If you are new to the whole Coliving lifestyle you might think ‘who are these people traveling all around the world to work from a hammock at a tropical beach?’ And how can that be sustainable?
Don’t worry, we understand your concern. The truth is, Colivers often are not working from tropical beaches or mountain tops. At Liwoto we know that most of the time, they are actually working really hard. Their office just happens to be at an awesome location somewhere around the globe.
Let me explain who Colivers really are.
Remote workers vs Digital nomads
Generally speaking, we can divide Colivers in two groups; Remote workers and Digital nomads. Both work online and are therefore location independent. They can work from anywhere, as long as they have stable internet and their laptop. But, in lifestyle these two are a bit different.
Remote Workers
Remote workers have a base. They either have a base in the county they decided to live in for a while or they have a base at home and a few weeks or months out of the year they travel. These last Remote workers travel part time and the rest of the time they live at “home”. Maybe they like to divide their time between traveling and being at home, or maybe their job allows them to travel only part of the year. These are the Remote workers that you will find at a Coliving space.
Digital Nomads
Digital Nomads don’t have a base. These are the full time travelers that don’t have any official “home” except maybe when staying with family or friends when they go back to their home country. This means that a Digital Nomad always works remotely and is almost always flexible on where to be in the world. You will find Digital nomads a lot at Colivings. They are looking for a community of like minded people and a place to work and live comfortably.
Let’s look at some numbers
Remote work has been growing over the last decade, mainly due to the rise of technology. On top of that, due to the global pandemic, Remote work has exponentially grown in 2020 and 2021.
- Since 2009, the number of people who work from home has risen by 159%
- In 2021, 16% of companies in the world are 100% remote.
- The industries with the highest number of remote workers are healthcare (15%), technology (10%), and financial services (9%)
- Better work-life balance is the main reason why people choose to work remotely
- 74% of workers say that having the option to work remotely would make them less likely to leave a company.
- The three biggest challenges associated with remote work are unplugging after work (22%), loneliness (19%), and communication / collaboration (17%).
* Findstack: The Ultimate List Of Remote Work Statistics for 2021
Knowing that some of the biggest challenges for remote workers are unplugging and loneliness, Coliving offers a solution. Living in a coliving and being part of a community makes that people are more likely to unplug after their workday and working at a common workplace beats loneliness.
How long do Colivers stay at a Coliving?
This varies of course, but in general Colivers stay at a Coliving space longer than tourists stay at a hotel. At most Liwoto coliving spaces, the average stay is 1 to 1,5 month. While traveling the world, Colivers are looking for a place to call home for a while. Staying a month or longer, gives them the opportunity to really get to know the place, fall into a routine, see enough while working and to get to know the local community.
Most Remote workers and Digital nomads work full time, so the time they have to explore and meet new people is limited. A new form of slower traveling is therefore more and more popular amongst Remote workers and Digital nomads. There is even a new name for this: Slowmading. Slowmads stay longer in one place, sometimes up to a year, before they move on to the next destination.
What do Colivers do for a living?
Any job that can be done over the internet, can be a remote job. In the last years the types of jobs Colivers have has changed a lot. A few years ago, Remote workers and Digital nomads were mostly working in tech. These were developers, marketeers and graphic designers.
And even though today still probably more than half of the Colivers fit in these categories, we also see all types of other jobs at Colivings. Nowadays we see writers, therapists, architects, nurses, translators, fashion designers and many more. The bottom line is; if you can do it online, you can be a Coliver.
Do Colivers travel alone?
Most Digital Nomads travel alone, although we see more couples than before (also because many beautiful couples are formed at our Colivings). Remote workers travel either alone or with their partner or friends. On average we would still say that about 70% of Colivers travel alone. The beautiful thing about Coliving though, is that once you are part of the community, you will meet other Colivers again and again at different Coliving spaces. People come back at the same time or plan to meet up at a different Coliving space. This way the feeling of traveling alone has been transfert into the feeling of belonging to a big community, everywhere you go.
This is one of the biggest goals of Litowo, to bring people together not only during that one stay at that one Coliving, but beyond that. When you visit a Liwoto Coliving space, the chances of meeting old friends while making new friends are huge.
We hope that we gave you a better inside in who Colivers are. If this means that you see yourself trying out this lifestyle, we couldn't be more happy. To find out more about the Coliving lifestyle, also read our articles about Coliving, Community living and Working Remotely.
You can find all our Liwoto Coliving spaces here or join our Mini Masterclass!
I hope this article gave you all the information you were looking for. Please leave a comment with any questions of feedback you might have. We love to hear from our community!