A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TRAVEL BLOGGER AND VLOGGER
I tend to get a lot of questions when I am quizzed about what I do as a job. "So you travel the world, take some photos for your Instagram, chuck a video together and write a few words?". Well it's hard to argue with the vagueness of their assumption, but it is so much more than that, trust me!
All I need is a laptop and an internet connection (preferably fast - I am looking at you South Africa - those two months were a killer) to get my work done. I upload videos to YouTube and manage my blog through Wordpress (interested in starting a blog? check out our latest blog on how to start one) so I am very dependent on my equipment and WiFi.
To make things easier I am sharing what I get up to whilst not traveling and instead working at home. When we are abroad - well that is just a whole different game. I was inspired by our amazing friend Rachel at Department of Wandering and thought hey, I wanna let you know what my day is like.
We also reserve three days of the week for vlogging and filming videos, this schedule is for the other four days of working.
7:00: Wake up/Shower. Yep, that time might sound crazy but I am so used to having this schedule when traveling that it's better to keep it and have more hours in the day. Generally I lay in bed for an hour to wake up and go through Twitter, news sites and... watch some memes on Facebook.
8:00: Coffee & Comments: I don't start work till the coffee kicks in so whilst I wait for the magic to happen I reply to comments on the blog as well as on our YouTube channel.
9:00: Emails - Being in Australia means that most of the brands and companies I have been pitching to were asleep so their emails came through during early hours of the night. I use this time to reply to quick emails but for the ones that require a bit more of my time I use Airmail for Mac so I can snooze any emails to return to later in the day.
10:00: Prepare the day - If I don't have a list that is hand written and sitting in front of me then nothing will get done for the day. I look through my Google Sheets (for which I have created a calendar in) to see if there are any Skype meetings or blog posts that require my attention. I then go through my list of blog post ideas and if there are any sponsored or press trip posts still pending. Once I know what I am doing the day can begin, an hour spent planning is a well spent hour.
11:00: Respond to Pitches/Crafting Pitches - Whether I am returning to emails I have snoozed or brands based in Australia have returned my emails, I put this time aside to ensure I can talk to them in the same day. If I have no emails to respond to I return to crafting pitches.
12:00 Brunch / Start Video Editing - Yep, for some reason my diet isn't the best and two cups of coffee gets me to about lunch time for which my stomach lets me know its time to eat. I personally find that I work best with video editing in the morning, but depending on how much I have been doing I switch it up with blog post writing.
14:00 - 14:30 Break time - We may work hours on end but we are humans and I usually allow for half hour depending on my work load. I tend to catch up on some of my favourite YouTube vloggers ... which can be classified as research right?
14:30 Switch to Blog Posts -Whether I have finished up one of two daily vlogs, a fun Friday video or Jess's Sunday video there is always something to be done. Two hours in I am generally finished and now I switch to writing blog posts, returning emails or crafting content for sites like Expedia.
17:00 Skype Calls - We have recently been organising an upcoming trip with a brand based in Europe which means they just got to work and we need to flesh out booking flights, transfers and accommodation. Their coffee wake-up time is my knock off time but being a business owner with a global blog means you gotta keep working.
18:00 - Dinner Time - That small lunch I had probably wasn't enough nutrients so it's time to eat some dinner and catch up with Jess.
19:00 - Organise Social Media - I use Buffer to plan out my Tweets and Facebook updates for the week.
20:00: Relax Time: I either sit down to play some video games or watch a show with Jess depending on the night and her plans. Tea is generally served.
23:00: Crawl into Bed: America should be waking up which means some new Tweets for me to read and some more Facebook memes to laugh at before falling asleep.
Bonus: Also I work on several freelance clients that aren't related to the blog. This can be from one off jobs like website and blog design to social media and SEO services. That is fit in throughout my day but to keep it solely focused on what I do for the blog and YouTube channel I retracted it.
If you're a blogger I would be super interested to know what a day in your life looks like. Leave a comment below :)