PASSWORD RESET


Growing Online Income

Tips for Balancing Work and Travel

6.92K 7

With only two full days left in Christchurch before we head off on our adventure, it’s starting to sink in:
 WE ARE LEAVING!

I’m finding it very hard to balance work, saying goodbye to friends and family, unpacking and cleaning a whole apartment and getting everything ready before I go.

It’s SO exhausting, however soon I will be warm and overindulging in $5 hourly massages.

While I will be on holiday, I’ll also be at work. It will be a new challenge.

I have been thinking long and hard about how I’m going to make sure that this is both a successful holiday and period for my business.

In the past I have travelled as a scruffy, carefree, budget traveller.

Now I am traveling differently – with a bigger budget and with more responsibilities (work, clients, my blog readers – you guys!)

I am actually working with a few hotel brands during my travels on my travel blog, so will need to turn up looking somewhat presentable, rather than like a backpacker who just slept in a hammock for a few days and bathed in the ocean.

Here are my tips for balancing work and travel:

1) Stay Fresh and Focused
If I’m dirty, I am instantly less productive. I’m not a sweaty person, but Asia can be really intense, especially with the humidity. I always carry around wet wipes to clean my hands and face in an instant and a good solid deodorant to prevent excessive sweat. Now that I’ll be dealing directly with hotel managers, marketing managers and so forth, I want to feel and look good even if I’ve been on a plane for the past 13 hours.

2) Set Dedicated Work Hours
Unfortunately New Zealand has the worst timezone for my clients who are based in the UK. I stay up really late in order to get things finished during their business hours. On the flip side, Asia is going to be way better for business, but I don’t want my days to be ruled by my work. I am planning to set aside 2 hours a day that are ‘set work’ hours where I knuckle down and get things done. Throughout the rest of the day I’ll check my emails sporadically, but I want to set a limit to checking my emails 3 times per day on my phone.

3) DISCONNECT
As much as I enjoy my work, making money and checking out other blogs… I like life. When we’re in Thailand I want to do a three day trek and just disconnect from the Internet. I’ll try to time it carefully so that I minimise the impact on my business, but I want to disconnect. I want to lose myself in my travels, exploring and being ultra present in the moment. I haven’t had a full break from my work in over a year… even when I went on holiday to Queenstown recently I did a little bit of work!

4) Set Goals
I have a few projects in mind for diversification that I do not want to start until we’re settled in Panama. As it’s a new direction I want to head in, I want to brainstorm thoroughly and have the time and energy to research it properly. However, there are smaller projects that I have started, but not completed yet, so I want to keep these ticking over while I am traveling and just chip away at them slowly.

I really hope that I can balance a kick-ass holiday with moving forward in my business.

Have you ever travelled and worked at the same time? How did it go?

Is there anything you’d like to see in particular about working/traveling/location independence? It all starts in three days!