Lakshmi Sharath

Posted: 15 May 2016 11:37 PM PDT

Everyday I wake up to emails from people – 14 year olds to 60 year olds asking me how to set up a travel blog and whether they can work with me. They probably mean, can they travel with me. Travel blogging is often perceived to be very glamourous. Most people do not even understand that it is a profession like any thing else. We may not work 9-5, but we work on all days, weekends and holidays. We work when we travel and we work when we dont travel . So, I thought I should write a post on a day in the life of a travel blogger – to give you a slice of life of a regular day in my life – the work I do while I travel, because for me, travel is work as well.

Good morning !

My day begins around 7 am – 7 30 am. I am not a morning person unless I am dragged out of bed to catch an early flight or we have sunrise on the agenda. My balcony is my favourite place, irrespective of whether I am travelling or not. I do pranayama for ten minutes, have a cup of tea and I start my day with Microsoft One Note .

The agenda for the day

My day’s agenda is on this note . A simple to do list, places to see, content pegs for social media, for new blog posts. But this is where I plan my trip. My flight details, addresses of hotels, any contact numbers that I need to remember, places that I want to see or people I want to meet – all of this is stored in my One Note.

Social media plan

When I am travelling on my own, I am a slow traveller. Wifi is usually limited to the hotels – so the first thing I do is to complete my social media plan for the day. While live tweeting and facebook updates are great, the reality is that data is not always available on the go, irrespective of whether I am travelling in India or abroad.

A social media calendar is a must

At the beginning of every month I have a rough social media plan created. I tweak it every week and when am travelling every day. All of this is stored in an excel on my One drive and I access it on the go. I fine tune the tweets and updates, schedule them for the day. If I get network on the go, then am all for live tweeting though.

Working on the road

Travel is all about sights and sounds – moments and memories that you do not want to forget. When we are travelling from one place to another, all these merge into one another. Sometimes I dont have the time to take elaborate notes – a quick phrase, a photograph, an audio clip is all I need. This is where One Note comes handy again.

Travel plans on the One Note

I take pictures on the go – sometimes its just a sign board. I speak to myself all the time – record my thoughts and emotions, my impressions, my doubts – its all like talking to myself. Sometimes I record the guide’s narration on the app as well. All these help me jog my memory when I am writing a story or a post.

Making notes while travelling – the One Note way

Meetings on the go

Afternoons in my opinion are not great for travel. The light is usually harsh and since I spend a lot of time in nature or heritage destinations, I prefer to take it easy during lunch. I do a lot of meetings while I am travelling, virtually of course. So the first thing is to find a quiet place where I can get wifi . I sit in a corner and do a skype call. I return calls, whatsapp messages, check my mails, respond to twitter and facebook, do an instagram post and finish off whatever little work I have. Sometimes I just revisit my plan for the day and see if I need to change an agenda.

As a travel blogger, I am not very good at writing articles or blog posts while I travel. But I have tried the latter. I usually do a draft on Microsoft Word – lists are easy to work on. I dont need the internet unless I am doing some research. These posts are quick and do not take too much time. These are however possible only when I am travelling on my own – its impossible during group trips or FAMs because my time is not in my hands.

Planning on the go

Evenings

This is the time I enjoy travelling. I meet people, lose myself in sights, have chai in local tea shops, take a lot of photographs. I am an evening person and this is my favourite part of the day. If am in a town, I walk around it. If am at a heritage destination, I spend a lot of time here. I love sunsets – so from beaches to forests, this is the best time as well. A lot of travellers love mornings – I enjoy evenings. There is a certain romance as the sun comes down. If I have network, I am on social media during this period.

A walk in the night

I love walking in the night – even if its around my homestay or a small town. I ensure its not too late as it can be unsafe sometimes but if I have company, I am all for it. I am an owl and I love owls – I look for birds if am in the forests or stare at stars. This is the time I unwind. I let everything absorb into my system.

Memories are made of these

An hour of work before I call it a day

I love my sleep and I usually push myself to do this if am not too tired. Downloading photos and storing it on One Drive is the first on the agenda. If there is a photograph that I want to share on the network or a blog that I want to publish, I quickly try to process it. This is however very time consuming – so I must confess that I dont really do too much processing on the go. Its easier to process pictures for instagram posts though and I try to do one before I sleep. I also quickly go through my notes on One Note to see if I have missed out anything. Sometimes I try to complete an urgent proposal or finish an invoice that is pending. All these are best done when you are fighting jetlag because they immediately make you want to curl up and sleep.

So, that is an ideal day of my life. If am not travelling, I do all of the above, sitting at home. When am writing, I switch off everything – including social media. I try to concentrate on my writing, but distractions often creep in – TV, books and then of course friends and family take up a lot of my time. So, tell me how different is my day from yours ?

The post is written in partnership with Microsoft Office