Btw I did use AI to make the post more readable, my brain is pretty tired, but I did write the whole foundation/points myself, just to let you know, I do want to ask you about your opinion / experiences.
I know this is a nomad subreddit, so that can mean various things. I’m mostly curious about people who have done long-term camping, RV/car living, glamping, or traveled around while working from a laptop.
Basically, the next 6 months are pretty important for me, it's not some 6 months fixed timeline I have, but it's about something that Can be done in the next 6 months that could literally change my life entirely.
I work for myself from a laptop and I’m at a point with my business/project where I don’t actually need 12 hour workdays. What I need is maybe 3-6 genuinely high quality focused hours, 4-5 days a week, consistent is better but not necessary, then more i get done the faster it happens, but it's primarily about mental clarity and action, than needing to do like 12 hour insane days, for the next few months.
The problem is that my current lifestyle seems absolutely terrible for my brain, and I've reached a low point of burnout.
For the last 2-3 years I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time in my bedroom working, thinking, staring at screens, basically living in one room most of the time.
I live in a big city, but I don’t even think the city is necessarily the problem. It’s more that my actual life is just… bedroom. I might go for a 2 hour walk, go somewhere at night, see somebody occasionally, whatever. It doesn’t seem to compensate for spending most of my existence in the same room.
I wake up and there is no signal to move. No sun hitting me, no urgency, nothing. I can lie there, look at my phone, and somehow half the day passes before my brain really turns on. Tasks feel like an uphill battle. Even if I manage to have a productive work day, I often don’t have the drive left to go train, cook properly, organize my life, etc. I feel very one-dimensional here.
I’ve also burned myself out pretty badly over the last few years and used stimulants for a period, which definitely didn’t help. I’m done with that now and don’t want the answer to productivity to be blasting stimulants just so I can force myself to work, If i had a fresh body the stimulant route would work for my current goal, but I don't have that option right now, body is tired and im burned out. So I can't really take stimulants for 6 months and reach my goal effectively.
Here’s the weird part though.
Every time I’ve gone camping, after like 2-3 days I feel noticeably different.
I feel younger, fresher, more energetic, more content, more natural socially, almost “less autistic” for lack of a better description. When I wake up in a tent, I actually feel like I’ve woken up. Life is so real and I may even have glimpses of wanting to do something.
It’s cold enough that I get dressed. I walk outside to brush my teeth. There’s sun, fresh air, physical movement, some slight discomfort, but it's actually nice. Something is basically telling my body “okay, day started, move.”
And I do.
Then I come home and within a few days I’m slowly back in the same dead state.
So I’ve been thinking… what if I just live outside for a few months?
Not survival camping. Basically stupidly high-end car camping / glamping.
I have a big SUV, a rugged laptop, internet, 2 kWh and 5 kWh batteries, fridge, cooking equipment, water tanks, etc. I’m putting together a kitchen box that basically opens into a ready-to-use kitchen. I could buy a high end inflatable tent and some stuff I'm missing but I have like most of what I need basically, good sleeping setup, portable dishwasher because apparently I’ve lost my mind, and I can fit enough gym equipment in the car to properly train, so maybe.. I wouldn't just blast stimulants at home for 6 months to make my dreams happen, but be an unhealthy dork, I could actually do it in a healthier way, while also gaining weight/muscle.. in theory atleast, when I'm at home I seem to fall into bad habits i eat bad and I don't excercise consistently. It's this like state I get into I don't know I seen to just not really be able to keep various aspects of my life in check. At most I manage 1 thing it seems. But when i go into nature suddenly I come back I clean my place, I take care of all the other things i noted, I actually function properly for a while.
The goal would be to make the logistics extremely smooth. Arrive somewhere, deploy everything quickly, and basically have electricity, internet, good food, proper sleep, workout equipment and almost apartment-level comfort, except I’m actually outside. I'm really trying to make the setup convenient and organised, yes even the gym which is a crazy thing to plan to travel with a tiny gym.
I’d probably stay in each place around 4-10 days. Czechia initially while the weather is good, then potentially move south through Italy/Croatia/Greece as it gets colder.
I’ve thought about just renting a cabin somewhere, but I don’t think it gives me the same thing. In a cabin I can still close the curtains, lie in bed, doomscroll and recreate my current lifestyle with nicer scenery outside. In a tent I’m still forced to interact with the environment a little. I feel the temperature, see the sun, hear everything, physically go outside to do things, and every week or so I can move somewhere new.
What I genuinely don’t know is whether the effect I’m experiencing is real and sustainable, or mostly novelty.
I’ve camped plenty of times, but never lived like this for weeks or months.
Maybe after 2 weeks the novelty disappears and I’m just sitting in a tent with the exact same brain.
Maybe I get lonely.
Maybe moving everything becomes annoying as fuck.
Maybe I spend a bunch of money optimizing this setup and discover that I actually hate living this way.
But I can also imagine waking up, going for a walk/hike, eating properly, training, doing 3-4 focused hours of work, sitting outside, sleeping well, and repeating that for months while slowly moving around Europe. I'd call my friends twice a week, see them here and there depending on whether I'm in czechia or where I'm.
And honestly, if I could maintain even part of the energy I’ve consistently felt while camping, that could be massively valuable to me.
I don’t need more work hours. I need my brain to actually fucking work during the hours I have. I don't need this to be a permanent thing, I just need to do really well for next couple months and thrive like this for a bit.
So I’m curious specifically from people who have actually done this for a meaningful amount of time:
Did living outdoors make you feel more energetic / clear-headed after the initial novelty wore off?
How long did you live like that?
How often did you move camps?
Did the logistics eventually become annoying enough to hurt productivity?
Did solitude become loneliness, or were you fine with relatively little social contact?
Did you actually get more work done?
And if you were in my position and only needed a few really high-quality work hours per day for the next 6 months, would you try it? To be honest i probably just need like 2-3 really good months, I'm stretching it to 6 months because you never know. But yeah I feel so dead in my apartment it's screaming at me that I need to leave.
I know “I’m going camping so I can build my business and make a lot of money” sounds almost like an oxymoron lol.
But I’m increasingly wondering whether what I’m missing isn’t another productivity technique or more discipline. I don't know, I feel stuck, I feel really like.. motivated and I do want to make my projects happen they fascinate me, but the moment I sit at computer it's just.. background stress, resistance, not fun, and I'm just not connected with the goal as much anymore. But I do like thinking about the task, but when it comes to doing it's just painful and it's not enjoyable anymore. Like amybe if my brain worked and I was connected with it maybe it would be different, if i come back from social event and my brain is working I notice I do actually want to work, but that's not a sustainable thing I can't see my friends all the time everyday in my situation. Idk.. it's like my brain needs something to turn it on.. a this point, but my current way of living isn't doing it well anymore. Even a 1-2 h walk won't save me. But anytime i come back from a trip boom i clean and organise the whole place with ease, it's like the resistance is gone. Hard work is hard work but it's rewarding and it's not as impossible anymore.
Maybe I just need to feel awake and alive again.
And so far, camping is one of the few things that has consistently done that. I've never been camping for long periods of time, but hey this will be glamping and comfortable so how bad can it get, I've done winter campings in -10C etc, so I think if there's like a cold day here and there it's not going to be a big deal. I'd get a nice big tent with a porch so I have where to chill atleast if it rains 3 days in a row.
But yeah I can't tell if this is a real plan or fantasy, so I'm curious about your experiences.