It’s probably no surprise that we are often asked how we balance family with travel and work.
We have one of the world’s biggest travel blogs, we’re currently traveling full-time, and we have two beautiful girls who love a lot of attention. We also have to fit in: good eating, exercise, distance education for Kalyra, time for learning, time for resting, time for fun, sleeping and meditation.
The sleeping one kinda misses out a lot, but once that first baby arrives, you become this magical being that learns how to operate effectively on minimal sleep. (I wonder at what age it will change!)
How to find the balance between family, travel + running a digital business
1. Cull the shit
And by that, I mean house cleaning. LOL
I so love that we’ve embraced minimalist home maintenance. The less you own, the less you have to manage, and the more time you have to use in a way that fulfills you.
Clear out things and people from your life that don’t rock your soul. Seriously, stop letting things and people that don’t matter rent space in your head and steal your productivity. Dedicate time to things that move you toward your business, family, or life goals.
2. Get clarity of mind.
It’s AMAZING how much of your time is taken up from living in the cluttered space of your mind. Learn how to live from your body instead and free up your mind to get razor sharp focus on the present moment.
The best way to do it – meditate daily and practice mindfulness. (read The Happiness Trap – it explains mindfulness so simply)
Here’s my morning routine, which is hugely benefit to help you with it.
3. Do what you love.
When you do what you love, Einstein time opens up for you. Einstein time is when time seems to expand where suddenly you can get so much more done. Einstein said there’s no limit to time, that time is infinite.
We are where time comes from.
Life is different when we tell ourselves:
“I have exactly the right amount of time to enjoy everything I am doing.”
It’s in the flow where magic and minimal limitations live.
4. Combine everything you love.
This is the biggest way we find the balance. Our greatest passion is travel. Through our travels we create incredible bonding time where we make beautiful memories together. I cuddle and laugh with my children so much more now we are travelling. It’s bliss.
Our business is travel – Lying on the beach, sipping wine at sunset, eating delicious meals, or hiking to the top of the mountains is all called research and inspiration.
It’s fun, it’s discovery, it’s adventure, it’s exploration, it’s relaxation, it’s learning, it’s work, it’s income creation all rolled into one.
We are also big outdoors people, so our adventures like hiking, cycling, and kicking soccer balls in parks, turns into exercise and mental health.
And the in-between moments is where we fit in good eating, rest, and other passions and pursuits.
When you combine your work with health, family and fun the balance appears.
What our day looks like
I hesitate to write this as schedules rarely exist in our world. Every day is different and free flows, but we have general chunks of sameness that we squeeze into the day.
Early to rise and to bed before midnight.
I’m usually up between 4:30-5:30. It depends on when I get to bed. I’ve just set a boundary to be 11pm every night. I usually read for 20 mins. So far it is working well. Craig usually stays up later and gets up later. We’re all wired differently.
Early morning Yoga + meditation + productivity
I start my morning with a 10 min yoga session and 20 minutes of meditation before eating the frog. That is I jump straight into my writing tasks or those things that must be done for that day before the girls wake.
Read more: How I maintain a yoga practice while I travel
Evening work
After dinner is story time and girls to bed. This can sometimes take up to 2 hours (Both our girls are currently horrible sleepers). Once they are in bed, we hit the workload again. My head is not so clear at this time so I work more on tasks that don’t require a lot of thought – image creation, photo editing, social media, emails.
The meals
Breakfast is usually a mix of eating together, and working while the girls play. We usually fit in Kalyra’s school lessons in the morning as well.
Lunch is normally easy and on the run. Dinner is where I attempt to cook wholesome meals. Kalyra often helps. Craig is on play and bath duty while I cook. We always eat dinner together.
We eat out a lot during the day. Because we’re so busy, we value the time we get in exchange for this. Otherwise, we like to stay in budget accommodation where we can self-cater and cook meals.
Cafe bumming is where Craig and I do a lot of our brainstorming and planning. Why does coffee aid so well with this? We love to go to family friendly cafes and restaurants so the girls are also entertained. (Business meetings are also done over coffee – so great to have a business where the girls can come to meetings.)
The play
If it is a non-exploration day, we find space in the day to take the girls out somewhere for a play – usually at the park or playground, but it could be a trip to the movies, or an indoor play centre. Often we’ll tag team so one of us can have several hours of day time work.
The exercise
We try to ride our bikes or go for a walk each day. It’s a great time to unwind, hang out together, and explore the local area. Kalyra has mad love for her bike and it definitely enhances our fun family time.
The exploration
We’re slowing travel down a bit so we won’t be exploring every day. For a while there we were exhausting ourselves by spending a large chunk of the day exploring the local region. When we have our exploration days, we incorporate the above activities into it. Of course, work is the exploration – the gathering of content.
P. S if you want to learn about travel blogging, the best place to start is here. You can also check out our travel blogging resources here.
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You guys are truly great! Great tips. Even though I do not have little ones to care for, it is important to reflect all the activities and minimize those that do not provide reward and focus on the positive!
It’s amazing how much we clutter our lives with things that don’t matter. Gotta keep culling
Ah yes, the elusive balance. 🙂
I also find when I don’t have a set schedule that making sure I get up and go to sleep at the same time makes a huge difference. Plus, of course, meditation and yoga. It clears my mind and leaves me refreshed before jumping into the to-do for the day.
Other things that help. I set certain hard deadlines for certain projects (personal and work related) and move toward those. Then, I leave quite a bit of room for the other things that are not top priority. I also accept that sometimes, things happen that change the landscape of an entire day and learn to work around it.
Of course, I’m not perfect. When I follow these guidelines, I find I have far more productive, happier days. Some days, probably more than I’d like, I get distracted.
Thanks for sharing your insights and schedule! It’s always great to hear how other people figure out their lives and then learn from it!
Oh yeah, deadlines is something I need to get a lot better at! Thanks for sharing your great tips Leigh!
That is an awesome life you live. Thank you for proving that you can travel with kids!
1. Cull the Shit – that is great advice for everyone. We live a minimalist life with few possessions but lots of travel and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You always have to ask which brings you the better memories? The stuff or the moments?
I need to learn a lot in terms of balancing my life. I need to wake up early to write. There’s no better way to learn than from a married woman. She has to juggle so many tasks together. Thanks Caz! Again a really helpful one.
Ha Ha. Yep, married women get really good at juggling, even more so when the babes come around.
I’m so happy to see a post about not just work-life balance (there are so many of those) but work-life (family)-travel balance! It isn’t just about working less or taking off from work more often. It is equally about freeing up personal/life responsibilities (like having less clutter as you say and automating routine tasks) for enrichment activities. In our case travel too is the answer.
My blog VacationCounts has recently started a Google+ community (your readers might be surprised by how popular the G+ communities feature has become for travelers). It is to discuss “Work-Life-Travel Balance” such as you talk about in this post.
https://plus.google.com/communities/101055278774231558829
Everyone is welcome that wants to learn and share ideas on how to take more time off to travel. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your community Scott. I think it’s something more people want to get better at. It’s not so easy in this fast paced word but it can be done with a little focus and prioritizing
Awesome! This is just what I need as I’m going to move to the next stage of life, which is marriage, soon. Just one question here. Are you planning to home-school your kids?
Yes we are. Home schooling our eldest. Well it is distance education. I’ll have a post coming up about it soon You can read this post in the meantime https://www.ytravelblog.com/distance-education-home-schooling-australia/
I imagine it helps when you are both working together for the same goal – the travel Blog. That’s one less distraction.
Yes that certainly does help
Juggling to many things all at ones could really be a problem. What is important is that we know what we prioritize and all other else we do when we have time. It is also possible that we could bring family and work along as well travel. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.
Interesting post, especialy because you travel with kids. Kinda wondering, do the kids know what kind of work mommy and daddy do?
Yes. Our eldest understands.
This is an inspirational post full of great reminders. I loved your reference to “eating your frog”! Great book that has helped me with procrastination.