SO many budding freelancers want in for the awesome perks of having your own schedule.

Freelancing means you can work from wherever and hop on a plane at a moment’s notice. Honestly? It was one of the biggest draws for me, too. Travel is a huge part of my life, and getting to do more of it on my own terms? Well, that’s just the icing on the cake.

To show you just how possible it is to freelance and travel at the same time (but also how much hustle you have to put in) I’ve asked 6 freelancers who travel to share their daily schedules. Prepare to be inspired, envious, and maybe even a little shocked!

Paula and Gordon of the Contented Traveller

We are currently on the road in the USA and in Canada on a full work trip. Not only do I need to write for our site Contented Traveller but for all of the hotels and businesses we are working with. I am not complaining as we are having some of the most amazing experiences, but it is difficult too.

I also have freelance assignments coming in that pay the bills. How am I doing it? Basically sleep is a secondary option.

We explore and cover restaurants and experiences in the day and well into the night, but then I need to write when I get home and my husband needs to get the photographs organized. Because we have so many companies we are working with, it is essential to write immediately to enable us to convey the feelings we had right there and then. Otherwise the next one would swallow them up.

Then there is the social media promotion, so that our readers can see what we are doing and we are also fulfilling our commitments to our partners. Is it easy? Hell no. We want to be able to explore at will also and to sit and get a feel of places. When we examined how we would achieve all of this, the only place where we had space to make it all happen and have it all, was to compromise on sleep.

That will explain the bags under my eyes in the photos, and I am sticking to that story.

Follow Paula and Gordon on their frenetic but amazing trip around the US and Canada on Contented Traveller or any of their social media platforms:  Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest.

Jub of Tiki Touring Kiwi

As a freelance writer I go through the same pains as University, often leaving deadlines until the last possible minute (with time to produce quality content).

Recently while travelling through Europe I found it was best to embrace my habits, I can’t wake up early so a day would involve waking up at 10-11am, checking social media and emails for an hour over Facebook.

The afternoon would be for fun and adventures, ensuring I get some activity each day makes me happy. The evening varies on workload, but midnight – 3am is ‘my zone’ when I work most efficiently (core writing). Whether I work straight through from 7pm – 3am depends on workload and where exactly I am. If there is sports on, I will be watching that and doing the tasks requiring less focus in the background.

Each of us has different sleeping habits. ‘Sleeping in’, leads to more energy throughout the day.

It changes slightly everyday while on the road, but this is a rough outline of what works for me. My favourite day adventure in Europe was hiking in the Tatra Mountains near the border of Poland and Slovakia.

Follow Jub’s adventures at Tiki Touring Kiwi or on Instagram or Snapchat (@Jubunator)

Rease of Indecisive Traveler

All of my work is done remotely, so I am rarely 100% in vacation mode.

Most trips involve at least a couple of days when I am hunkered down in front of my laptop. When I am planning trips where I know I will have limited access to wifi and also be unable to work full days, I do as much prep work as I can before the trip. After all that prep work I generally spend about 3 hours at the end of each day answering emails, writing articles, and taking care of any necessary client work.

I recently did a 7-day road trip all along the Ring Road in Iceland. While on the road, I had no access to wifi, so I made sure that each guesthouse I stayed in had at least halfway decent connectivity.

At the end of each day, I broke out my laptop, uploaded photos, and took notes on everything I saw that day so I would be able to write articles about it later. On days when I had a deadline to meet, I loaded up on coffee and stayed up late.

Freelancing on the road isn’t always glamorous and often involves working when you’d rather be doing something like sleeping or exploring the city, but I do feel like the freedom to take trips without requesting time off makes working while traveling worth it.

Follow Rease on the Indecisive Traveler or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat (@IndecisiveRease).

Chris of One Weird Globe

11am: wake up (yes, I heart sleeping in)

11:05am: lift the lid on the computer, make coffee, throw some water on the face, check e-mails and Facebook

12 noon: I notice a story about the US ‘worldwide travel alert’ – a closer read makes this sound like something worth blogging about. I don’t normally blog about news / fast-moving stuff, but there’s a perspective to share that will be evergreen.

Through the afternoon: writing / researching the blog post. Occasionally switch back and forth between that and a major project of revamping a book.

4pm: Hit ‘publish’ on the blog post, return to revamping the book.

6:30pm: Dinner with my wife. We usually go out since neither of us likes to cook.

8pm: Jump on a webinar. Didn’t really learn much new, but took some notes I’ll use when I’m ready to revamp my e-mail marketing.

9pm: Revamp the book over a couple of beers…. This stage is more about getting blocks of text in the right place; the finer points of editing will come later.

Follow Chris at One Weird Globe, on Facebook, or on Twitter.  

Anna of Adventure in You

This year, I quit my job (yet again) to go full time into traveling and blogging.

My partner and I set up our blog, Adventure in You, almost seven months ago and we have been on the road for about four months.

Apart from blogging, I also freelance write for other publications while also doing some graphic design work for some bloggers and other clients.

Since the life of a freelancer varies depending on where you are and how much work load you have, every day is different. When we were based in Canggu, Bali, my daily routine was to wake up, go for a morning surf and work for a couple of hours by this seaside cafe. During this couple of hours would be when I would work on our blog, or do design work for clients. Afterwards, we would head to yoga class then back out again for a quick meal.

I have to admit, it was a pretty awesome lifestyle! Nowadays, we are shooting around Europe by train so our routines are based on where we are and how long we are there for.

Follow Anna at Adventure in You, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Stacey of One Travels Far

6am: Wake to the sound of chicken buses and the drivers screaming “Guate, guate, guate” as they take people from Antigua and into Guatemala city for work. Go back to sleep.

7.30am: Grab a quick cup of coffee (if I’m somewhere without a machine this may mean walking down to a local cafe and working there instead). Work for 1-2 hours either from bed, the kitchen table (if I have a base) or the common area if I’m in a hostel.

11am: Take a break and get some exercise. If I’m staying somewhere for a few months I usually will have joined a gym, otherwise I’ll go for a walk or run so I can see more of my new city. I usually eat lunch out somewhere, before getting another couple of hours of work in.

2pm: Take some time off and do some exploring. This could mean visiting the local markets, heading to a museum or simply going for a wander.

6pm: Dinner at home or a hostel followed by a few hours of work.

Sometimes I’ll work all day, followed by a whole day of traveling/exploring and I’ll head out to a coffee plantation or macadamia nut farm or do something more exciting like ziplining.

Follow Stacey at One Travels Far, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Inspired yet?!

Your turn!

Would you like to freelance and travel the world? Where would you like to work from if you could work from anywhere in the world?