Managing a full-time Job with Travel and Blogging
Table of Contents
As I call myself a corporate slave by profession and a travel blogger by passion, I keep juggling between two roles at every juncture of my life. Since that time, I discovered my love for travel. It led me to pen down my travel journals initially for my friends and acquaintances but later grew to gain a larger audience. It then became a constant challenge to balance both my work schedules and my passion for writing, as the same required immense time management, patience & dedication.
Manier times, in fact even now I get these bouts to quit the job and take blogging as a full-time career option. But, somehow my meekly wishful heart has not been able to justify my practical mind which does risk calculation all the time. And, with the ongoing crisis, somehow my mind has become strongly affirmative to stay put with my job all the more for at least a couple of years to sustain through the economic situation that we may all face henceforth.
By looking at tonnes and tonnes of travel content on social media, one may feel the glam quotient of the choice of work, which comes with it. But, the truth is that, behind all this lies hours of dedication, hard work, brainstorming, and planning which goes behind creating all those meaningful and interactive travel content and that too after extensive time-consuming research, which goes behind it.
On the importance of having a financially stable job
I do not want to put a flat face on those who may be thinking about a lucrative career prospect that comes with full-time travel and blogging. No, definitely not! But, if someone out there, is thinking to pursue this passion of blogging without quitting the existing job then read on how some of the well-known travel bloggers are balancing both ends.
Also, what do they feel about having the importance of keeping a steady balance between Job and travel blogging?
1. Travel Melodies – “Financial stability in this hour of the global crisis is indispensable”
Friends, relatives, and colleagues often wonder (they even ask, sarcastically, as I perceive) how I’m able to travel so much while managing a steady teaching job, family commitments, extensive traveling, and a travel blog.
Well, I guess you somehow find time for things you love. Isn’t it?
I feel prioritizing, planning, perseverance, and consistency are the key factors to balance personal and professional life while holding onto your passions.
A solid positive daily routine is so important. I use a monthly planner to chart out a work-family-passion balance and stick to the schedule(mostly). This helps me save a great deal of time and energy. Also, I try to maximize my travel/commute time in completing pending things, work, or blog related.
I plan all my travels just as the year starts to mannerly use all the extended weekends, and holidays. Over the years, I’ve learned to overcome the FOMO that makes me plan short yet satisfying trips around the world. I’ve even managed to travel abroad on extended weekends. It’s all about how well you manage your time.
My travel blog is not just a side hustle but a passion project that keeps me sane. From blog design, website maintenance, content creation, analytics, branding, social media to networking – blogging does require a hell lot of work and dedication.
How can we not talk about the global pandemic that has affected the entire world? The corona outbreak has changed the way we used to manage life and work. Things were in sync. Now, everything is haywire and uncertain. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious.
I don’t blame you if you’re thinking about quitting your job for reasons of your own. You might want to put your career on hold because you have a dream to travel full-time and work remotely. Or you might want to quit under the pressures of increased responsibilities at home.
Whatever it is, know that it’s all the more important to sustain your job in these crazy times. You should think long and hard before making such important life decisions and the risks involved.
Think about the salary and other benefits you’ll lose out on. And, the problems you’ll face getting back to where you left off during these tough economic times.
Bottom line? Hold on. This will not last forever. Embrace the new normal. Work from home and keep your salary right now.
2. Revolving Compass –“On taking a conscious decision to continue working and blogging alongside”
“We, Abhishek & Neha, are a couple from Bangalore who are Software Engineers by profession and travel bloggers by passion. While, we explore the world with our kids and capture the moments through our travelogue Revolving Compass, we have also taken the conscious decision to remain grounded and continue our full-time job. At times, we do get the etching of pursuing our passion full-on, but we feel it is practical to continue with the full-time job.
And the current scenario around the world just reaffirms it. With the uncertainties surrounding us in the modern economic scenarios, it’s all the more important to have a sustainable regular source of income. And at the same time, build passive sources of income and ultimately work towards financial freedom. And that is the kind of balance we are striving to strike by managing our travel blog and our day job hand in hand.
It is a difficult task if you ask. And, sometimes we do wonder if we are being able to do justice to both. But life is all about taking challenges. With small kids and a home that demands our time as well, we are not rushing with the blog. We do as much as is possible, but strive to maintain the quality. Sometimes it’s just 2-3 posts a month. And social media exposure is also limited. But, the important thing is, since we love doing it, we have been now blogging steadily for over four years. And that consistency is important to us. And someday, as the kids grow, and we start getting more time, we are positive we will be able to take the blog places, alongside managing our full-time jobs.”
3. Solo Passport – “On stressing the importance of financial stability before taking any risk”
I am that one person who is passionate about my job and also about traveling. I am an IT professional and travel blogger. No matter how much I love traveling and documenting my travels, I still enjoy having a career and a good-paying full-time job.
Having a steady job gave me financial independence and also contributed to my travels. It also helped me by providing a lot of confidence in dealing with unexpected and difficult situations in life. But last year, I decided to take a break of 6 months to travel fulltime and live my passion. I quit my high paying job in Sydney and yes, I did plan for the 6 months break with a couple of months as a buffer. I was very confident that I would get any job when I return.
Unfortunately, I came to Sydney in search of a job in the first week of March, and WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic in the second week. All my interviews that were lined up were put on hold for an indefinite period and there were absolutely no jobs available in the market. It is a hard lesson that I have learned that never to quit your full-time job without a regular source of income. I still hope that I would get a decent job when all things get better but it has taught me a lesson for life.
When I was in my full-time job, I planned and traveled almost every weekend. I took a lot of domestic travels over the weekends. Because of this passion for travel, I loved sharing my travel stories. And hence started my travel blog. I mostly write my travel posts while I am traveling. I keep aside an hour or so every day at the end of the day just for writing my travel stories. This helps me keep my blog up-to-date and reduces the stress of having the backlogs.
4. The Iyerish House – “On her motto of WORK, SAVE, TRAVEL AND REPEAT”
I am a Travel Lover and have been to 44 countries across 4 continents, while balancing it with my job as a Brand Manager for the last 7 years. I work with Unilever in Marketing, and in my spare time and with a lot of planning, I travel, cook, bake, and keep my home cozy. Was last in Zanzibar in March just before the lockdown put a stop to all travel plans.
It was a dull Monday morning in March 2020. And she had just posted scuba diving pictures from a little island in the Indian Ocean. A few days ago, she was swinging off a tree at the equator in South America. And she was planning to take a break from travel in a quaint little Airbnb in Bali for the next few weeks. She, however, was not me. She was the one who’s Instagram feed I’d been scrolling through, on my way to work. After a quick long weekend trip of course.
On that fated Monday morning, things changed for the both of us. Borders were sealed, businesses were shut, roads were evacuated, flights were grounded. Travel was officially canceled – and what’s worse, no one knew for how long. All our lives had been impacted by the Coronavirus/Covid-19, just like that. While I still had to continue my day job from home, I wondered what she would do; what all those freelance travelers would do.
Being a travel blogger (if I may say so), I’ve always toyed with the idea of quitting my job to travel the world. As exciting as it seemed I could never come to terms with the uncertainty of that life; of not knowing where my next paycheck was going to come from. And in the post Coronavirus world, it only seems prudent to continue balancing my full-time job with my passion to travel. We often think that being nomadic is the ultimate way to travel. It needn’t be. You can still be a traveler rooted in a home and a job. And truth be told, the high isn’t limited to the actual journey – it starts right from staring at the holiday calendar in January. And the joy of accumulating leaves, finding cheap tickets, extending work trips, coming back to a cozy home, and to colleagues who look forward to your travel tales is something the travel nomads would probably never know.
The corona pandemic has already brought in so much uncertainty in our lives and having a secure source of income is indeed a fortune. So, for all of you out there thinking what the future holds for all us travel enthusiasts, I’d simply say Work, Save, Travel, Repeat. The earth is healing and is waiting for you to explore it soon!
5. Every corner of the world – “On setting the priorities in place”
I have a corporate job for more than 10 years now and I do travel almost every 2 to 3 months gap either a short trip or long trip without harming my job responsibilities. I run a blog and a youtube channel to journal my experience there.
Well, for me travel is my priority and so that I always plan ahead to travel any place without harming my job. I do proper time management and research to make the travel successful while having a full-time job.
Generally, I try to follow some certain points to manage my travel with the job :
# First of all, I count on any holiday and try to combine nearby weekends with that and check my travel dates and location accordingly. Suppose, any upcoming holiday is on Thursday then I take one extra off on Friday and make a long holiday from Wednesday night to Monday morning.
# I try to check cheap flight options or train options which does not affect on my finance as travel in an unknown place to me is just awesome. So, I always do research on flights and commute system and prepare accordingly.
# Also most of the time I do work from my laptop when I am traveling. If the internet is available I don’t mind working an extra hour and try to fulfil my commitments.
Again, because of the priority, I try to reduce my pub nights, shopping, movie nights, and try to save those extra pennies for travel.
If you love something, then it’s all about your priorities about how to manage it. I love to travel and blog, so I am managing my travel, blog, content creation, video at a time without losing anything.
6. Nomadic Shoes – “On preferring routine and stability”
Looking back to the day when I joined Amity International School as a Psychology Teacher 10 years back. I remember how I did not think that I will survive for so long in this job. And, today if anyone asks me if I want to leave my job for travel, I will say ‘No, Thank you’. Even though traveling makes me happy, teaching gives me a sense of purpose and structure in life. It was only when I started earning that I developed my love for traveling because how else would I have supported my travels in the first place. I still don’t get it why I need to leave my job for travel. I can very well travel along with a full-time job. Thanks to Summer vacation, Diwali holidays and winter break, I get enough days off to plan for my travels.
I usually club long weekends to plan my travels, even 3 days is enough for me to at least explore nearby destinations. As soon as the school calendar comes in April, I plan for the days that I am going to take off for the year. Also during CBSE board exams, I ask for invigilation duty that falls on a holiday and cash them later as ‘Comp Offs’. I keep a track of my finances well, I do not spend a lot of money in buying things that I do not need, use the public transport to work and save wherever I can. The calculations are always going on in my mind, instead of buying a dress for 5k, I can do a short weekend for the same amount.
Not everyone is comfortable with uncertainty, I prefer routine and stability. I exactly know how much money I will get at the end of the month and I plan accordingly. I have certain responsibilities towards my family and my parents and to take care of that I do require a secure job. All I am saying is that, it is very much possible to do two things that you love at the same time. Where there is a will, there is away!
7. Macro Traveller – “On being a successful Digital Influencer alongside a full-time job
I have been Blogging since 2008 it all started as a hobby when I was in college and later when I had a full-time job till 2015 as a Social media head for an educational brand, I decided to quit and start as a full-time traveler and travel for a living as it used to get tough to travel with a full-time job and I had to left go lots of lucrative travel opportunities, but I was skeptical about the financial condition during travel, hence I decided to first have a start-up to keep the money flowing.
I started a digital influencer marketing firm and started working on it full time to get clients on board and hired people to work with me. It was initially tough for a few months but things started to fall in place and I started focussing more on travel and manage office work in between as well.
Given the current situation, amid a pandemic, It is very important to understand the financial conditions of oneself and how it can change in the near future. Currently many have been getting lay off and pay cuts. Freelancers and service-based companies are literally out of service, so it’s better to have something than nothing, and ideally if you have a full-time job, it’s better to continue with that and work on the backend part of your passion in blogging or photography and improve your skills.
I have been focussing on videos and my fitness even though I can’t travel as that’s what a travel blogger does for a living. Currently the last 2 months, there has been less work compared to the usual self. So I at least have a full-time job to keep the moolah coming and have a skill to work on and improve and make the best use of it.
8. Chandrashila Bhattacharya – “Stable Job give wings to travel on your terms”
Those of us born in the 80s, were taught to focus on a single career to secure our lives, passion was secondary. Subsequently the newer generations and even some of us evolved. We no longer wanted to be pursuing a single career. While choosing my college I promised myself never to spend my life doing something I don’t like. I am an HR professional and follow my passions of travel and photography very keenly as well and I enjoy all of them.
We all need inspiration in our lives. Early on, I did a deep soul search to realize, travel is my inspiration to life and it nurtures my soul.
None of the above feelings have changed as we go through this global pandemic and it must be the same for most people. I am grateful to have a daily job, which gives me an anchor to be the explorer I want to be and travel on my terms, express on my term, and my own time.
Managing daily work and writing blogs along with it has never been easy and during a disruptive pandemic & lockdown it is even more difficult. Sharing here, few things I am following to continue writing in current times-
Maintaining a time and space – Fix a specific time during the day when you feel the creative most and block that time for writing. Similarly, fix a spot in the house, which you can allocate as a writing corner.
Think and feel – During these times, all I could think of was COVID! To clear my mind I first started writing My Lockdown Diaries as blogs. Continue to “feel” so that you can write genuinely. If it’s on travel – focus on the place and remember how it felt to be there.
9. TravelDreams – “On the importance of having the security of a steady professional career during turbulent times”
Some of us are indeed fortunate to have the kind of career that merges our passion & hobbies with our professional work life. In this situation, one can maximize the available time and resources into expanding our hobbies way beyond the mandate of the professional scope of work. But the majority of us are not fortunate enough to have this ideal combination and hence are always presented with the dilemma of following our heart and letting go of the professional work life altogether.
If I come down to specifics and talk about myself, photography & traveling have been more than a passion for me and hence getting into blogging was a natural transgression. Yes, I did ponder many times if I should make it a full-fledged way of life devoting the major part of my day hours to it by leaving my established job. Somehow, I did not take that step, and hence blogging always had the lure of a passion with none of the drudgery associated with it. It is this steady work-life that ensured that I had the means of pursuing the hobbies/obsession of blogging, traveling, photography in a manner that was truly customized to suit me.
There is no right or wrong way of pursuing the hobby or passion of blogging. To each, his own is the catchword, and I would not say my approach is better or worse. However, in today’s present, I still can plan to travel in the same manner that I am used to, or rather I can absorb the additional cost that traveling is going to incur in the days to come. All this is thanks to the availability of the steady professional work that I did not let go when everything was right in the world.
Considering that there is a day job that takes up most of my time and days of the year. One must be very circumspect while planning for travels be it of any kind.
As I generally do road trips and treks, I accordingly plan the rough dates at the start of the year and accordingly steer my work schedule around it. There are times when I need to cancel a planned trip at the last moment owing to work exigencies but then that is the way how it goes for those who have a full-time job in hand.
10. Hrish Thota – “On managing a successful family-run travel blog alongside a full-time job”
I’m Hrish Thota, I started writing way back in 2001 and was one of the earliest travel blogger from India. I have always had a full-time job as a digital marketer for a good part of my 19-year-old career, along with which I have been following my passion of travel blogging. I mostly travel with my wife and my 7-year-old son and we are probably the only Indian family travel bloggers as we create content on what families can do at different destinations and my wife creates Youtube videos on our travels too.
I have done more than 200 FAM trips in India and abroad by managing my trips around long weekends, holidays, or by taking earned leaves. I feel that having a full-time job provides the financial security required to run the family which takes off the commitment pressure from enjoying a destination, as there is no stress to create content that needs to be sold like pictures or articles.
I take pride in the fact I have created a work-life balance for my job and blogging so well that I continue to grow in my career while most people hardly notice that I have a full-time job.
I feel that the need of the hour is to reassure ourselves that this pandemic will pass too and they will be able to travel for leisure again by taking necessary precautions and trusting destinations and places which are ready with safety measures.
That’s why even now I keep sharing content on my blog and social channels to keep my audience excited about travels after the pandemic and how destinations are gearing up with safety.
Final Thoughts!
So, those of you, who were eyeing on the fact that if quitting a job and traveling full time would be lucrative enough? Think about, how fortunate we all are, who has the leverage over balancing both ends for now. And, it is very much possible by looking at the experience of the above mentioned established bloggers/influencers.
So, my piece of two-cent would be to hold on and keep saving and continue doing your job sincerely, more than ever. So, that it can help you delve into your passion with much more vigor in times to come.
Care to bookmark it for later read, no worries I have you covered. Head to PINTEREST and SAVE IT for later.
Till then stay safe and keep exploring. And, also feel free to share this blog or connect with me on social media at Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
You may also like to read :
- Creative Ideas of Doodling-Blog
- How to best to deal with lockdown stress?
- Why being a traveler is more rewarding than being a tourist?
Comments
That was a really good read and glad that I am a part of it as well.
Author
Thank you so much for the contribution
This is something awesome to know that people are still passionate about travel and blogging as much as their 9 to 5 commitments. It’s all about priorities and I guess money matters to keep alive your dreams. Great article
Author
So true and glad that u contributed through ur words in it . There are people u know who may be getting encourgaed by this ..
The opening sentence incorporating two key phrases of corporate slave and travel blogger is so relevant in today’s world and signify so much. The travel content visible today on the social media blogs definitely do speak about the hard work being put in by the respective individuals behind these accounts. Each one tries to put his/her best foot forward. It was very insightful reading about the various individual accounts of bloggers collective. Definitely many among us are always trying to calculate the risks involved in plunging full time into the passion however as you bought out that caution in these uncertain times Is so important because getting back to the professional perch where one left of is next to impossible in today’s competitive ecosystem. Truly a rich content article.
Author
Thank you so much for your valuable inputs. Our readers would surely take back something meaningful .
Really glad to be in some great company here! And appreciate how other bloggers and travellers in similar situation as mine are balancing the aspects of their life smartly. Great job with the composition!
This is the story of quite a few people on this group. Balance between a regular inflow of money vs travelling without boundaries is something to be settled with.
Author
Yes glad for you to have a close connect with us all..and I am sure you have better say on this topic atleast more than us with your well thought plans of the future …
So many encouraging stories about how joggling between family life, job and the blogging. I am deep in that problem that I cant find the good balance. I dont have a job but I am a stay at home mum. It think the key for me is to write a little everyday and not too much in one day. I just published a blog post since so many month but I have promised myself to write something everyday even if its just a paragraph.
Author
So glad that you could connect with the stories out here and I do feel your dilemma.. this blog is dedicated to all those hard working people like you who are struggling to keep their passion alive alongside a job .. keep up the good work and u will always do good ..thank you
Great tips and insight into how to manage both parts of your life and livelihood. It was great to read other peoples’ perspectives on juggling the full time job with travel and also finding time to write, create and manage a successful blog.
Such a great read! I work 20-40 hours in “Corporate America” while also maintaining a travel blog and traveling full time (at least pre-covid). Love to see that there are like-minded people out there doing the same thing as me!
Author
Yeah Kelli, once I was writing and compiling this post. I thought to myself .. Why quitting the well-paid job and this life when I can balance both at my own pace.
Love reading opines of few bloggers here. I am also in the same boat who manages Travel and Blog along side family and social life.Everyone has their own struggles, dreams and Passion for travel, not everyone want to travel full time. I love my cozy bedroom and after few days of travelling, I get bored.Also financially being stable is most important. I would never quit my job to travel full time!
Author
So true I am sure you could connect with all the points shared in the blog
These are so interesting to read and I can relate to so many of them. I love traveling, but I also love the stability and routine of my everyday life. It is encouraging to see so many people balancing both! Thanks for sharing!!
I also started blogging because a lot of friends asked how I could travel so often and travel solo. Unlike many bloggers here, I’m not a fan of my day job but it allows me to fulfill my passion…travel. I’ve been blogging for 2 years now and I have unexpectedly gotten much bigger and busier. Its a lot of work, but it is something I love to do.
It was interesting reading the thoughts of all these bloggers each still involved with their profession maintaining a full time job. I too wanted to take up blogging while I was working but then being into a profession with Sales & Marketing responsibilities and with lots of traveling within the country my passion for writing took a back seat being restricted to occasional posts on FB to share with friends. Then when I thought I could give it up for my passion I did so. Yet to keep earning and maintain financial stability,I still work after having taken up Corporate training as my new found profession.
Author
Yeah it’s very much possible to manage both at our own convinience
It’s interesting to read about bloggers manage to work full-time and travel blogging as well. Being financially stable and travel blogging at the same time is challenging, but doable. I finally left the company and started to be a full-time travel blogger last year. It’s refreshing but I also miss having a stable source of income from time to time.
I agree with you much, darling. It is not easy to give up everything and take up travel blogging full time. It’s not an easy task. It takes so much of time and energy. Having a stable job is not at all bad, honestly, few lucky ones can balance both ends, and I am glad to come across so many examples in your blog. Motivating!
Great Tips….
Definitely a very meaningful and great article.
Yes I do agree its really challenging balancing your passion for travels and your family responsibilities.
Author
Thank you so much .. glad you stumbled across this topic n could relate.
This is definitely a timely article given the state of the world.`I have often pondered this myself as we are balancing full time jobs and travel blogging. Part of me still entertains the idea of pursuing the blog full time, but we just got a new fur baby (Huckleberry the Golden Doodle) and are planning to have a baby of our own this year. In order to give them the best future, we want to make sure we have some bit of stability and security in our lives. For the meantime, we will continue to balance both job and blogging.
Good points for sure. I think this pandemic has given us all pause to think about what we really need and want. We are fortunate that my husband’s full time job actually guides our travels. We move every 3-12 months, so there are always new places to explore. We are actually looking at early retirement so we can do what we want, where we want. It’s still a look though, no firm plans. It’s great if you have a job that you love to be able to stay with it.
Author
That is amazing , a well lead carreer plans after retirement is also on my cards as well
What great perspectives. I work full-time as well and it’s been a struggle to balance travel and blogging, but planning and setting priorities helps. I like my day job so I don’t want to give it up, and sometimes it makes it hard to keep up with my blogging.
Author
Thank you .. I m glad you could connect so much . Giving up is not the best solution atleast now
“hours of dedication, hard work, brainstorming, and planning which goes behind creating all those meaningful and interactive travel content and that too after extensive time-consuming research, which goes behind it. ‘
Yes, so many people don’t realise how much work goes on behind the scenes. Fortunately, we are now in a position where the blog is the full time work. So much better working for something you are passionate about!
Although Covid 19 has made travel writing a bit more tricky ?
These are great tips. I totally agree about the importance of regular source of income. Just like you, I also enjoy having a career and a stable job while blogging on the side.
Good to know so many thoughts about how people handle travel blogging with their full time career. I know travel blogging in itself is a very time consuming job and with that going for full time job is really difficult. Loved reading all tips.
Both working full time and blogging require a lot of time and dedication. Having done that I can totally relate to this post. Having a full-time job and managing to blog alongside is a conscious decision on our part. The job pays the bills, EMIs and also contributes to the travel fund. In fact, we enjoy both our travel and our jobs. I think it is all about creating a proper balance!
It seems like you’ve struck a perfect balance of being passionate about both your job and travel. I can relate as I’m also working full time in a job that I enjoy, while having fun travel blogging on the side ? I definitely agree with you that planning and calendar management are key!