If you have the opportunity to travel and work as a blogger, you’re living what many dream about doing. Making decent money blogging while traveling the world is no easy feat; many bloggers don’t find success or don’t make enough to live off of. While it’s a fun way to live and work from the exciting adventures you’ll have, the people you’ll meet and the places that will inspire you, it’s not always feasible.
Those that make it happen know how to balance work and play in order to keep ultra-focus on the full-time blog while still enjoying their surroundings. The goal is to focus on your productivity, finding ways to work efficiently on the road and finding the perfect balance between working and enjoying your travels. Here is a look at the tips from those that have done it successfully.
Where to Begin
If you’re going to pursue this lifestyle, you need to understand that your blog is now your business. It’s no longer a hobby, a side project or a secondary income to be taken lightly. Your co-bloggers, associates, editors, graphic designers and anyone else that helps you are now your business partners with a purpose that influences your business and income. These partners are also the ones that might support your during times of struggle.
You’ll need to clearly separate work time from play time and travel enjoyment. Being on the road, it’s hard to separate when it’s time for work hours and when you can enjoy your travels. It may sound nice to work on the beach or while drinking with a new friend, but what really happens is your productivity will go down the drain, making your social time less fun and your work time take longer than it should have. Make work about work only and play about play only. Set boundaries with yourself because multi-tasking isn’t efficient.
How to Stay Focused
It’s important to stay focused in order to keep your productivity up. Keep distractions to a minimum and find a quiet workspace to do your blogging. Sometimes a quiet café or a hotel room desk is the perfect solution. Another trick is to minimize when you check your emails and shutting down new email notifications. It’s more productive to turn off notifications to avoid more distractions and to check out emails just a few times per week in bulk.
Since you’re on the road, you don’t have an office to go to when you’re ready to work, so it’s easier to get distracted when you’re working in new locations all of the time. Avoid new email notifications coming in every 5 minutes while you’re trying to finish a blog post and set times to go through your emails all at once in order compartmentalize which tasks are happening at what times.
There is no need to check email daily when you could be focusing on an important project because more than likely, answering one email will hurt your productivity for a good half an hour. This applies to social media too; you don’t need to check it every 15 minutes. If you’re still struggling to control the habit, use Timeout or SelfControl to block social media for chunks of time during the day.
How can I be Really Efficient?
There are many great ways to become more efficient. Consider using your smartphone as a work tool in order to be able to work anywhere anytime. It can be your best friend while you’re on the road. Take notes on your phone or with a pen and paper while you’re out doing something great so that you can remember to blog about your experiences in detail later.
Also, have your travel plans made rather than to wing it because you could end up wasting time, energy and money if you don’t have a plan in mind. It’s important to meet your deadlines and to have some sort of working hours rather than to be spontaneous with travel and risk slacking with your business.
If you’re struggling with productivity, use the Pomodoro technique which suggests that you stay laser focused for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. Do this four times and then take a 15-minute break before starting the process over again. Consistent breaks keep you focused and better able to concentrate.
Make sure you start your day doing the most important things done first so that as your productivity decreases as the day goes on, your hardest tasks are already accomplished during your peak concentration hours. If you find yourself swamped, consider outsourcing some of your work in order to increase your work-life balance. Keep your goals small and short-term with less long-term goals cluttering your mind.
Be sure to celebrate your achievements and not worry about what others are doing. Avoiding burning out by overscheduling your day, get your exercise in regularly and try to have some fun living the dream traveling and blogging.
