27: Is it Possible to Take Time off as a Travel Creator?

You deserve a vacation, to be able to shut off your laptop and run into the woods with no service and no one to bother you, but how? That is what I want to cover today as I have recently gone OOO and escaped to the woods, but there is definitely a strategy to it and guess what it doesn't have to be hard. 

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Chapters

• 1:25 How to schedule your content ahead ( yes it's possible!)
• 3:44 Prioritizing Your Work
• 6:10 The Best Thing For Your Sanity

Transcript

Laura Haley: [00:00:00] Hi, travel creators. Welcome back to another episode. I'm so happy to be here. Today we're going to be chatting about how to prepare to go away. Into the woods or into a place where you don't have service or wi fi as a content creator So have you ever noticed that when you come back from a hard time off like you're in the woods Like there's no connection at all.

Laura Haley: You're just away from your devices That your perspective has changed Well, this is also what is known as the three day effect, which is when your brain basically, like, scrubs itself, okay, of all the toxins of overstimulation and too much information. That's not about today's episode, but anyway, you kind of come back and you realize like what's really important and Today I want to give you some tips to set yourself up to have a really successful [00:01:00] hard out of service Situation because I know you you might still be out or off, but you're never really off You're probably still capturing content But you're probably not going to be responding to emails.

Laura Haley: Like, I know you. You're a travel creator. You're gonna be whipping out your phone or your camera to capture this beautiful place you're experiencing. So let's get started with some tips. We're going to start with the basics here. So what I'm about to say to you is not going to shock you, but it is important to hear.

Laura Haley: And the first tip, oh my gosh, it kind of even pains me to bring this up, but it is to schedule content in advance. So sometimes, like, even giving this advice, Makes me wanna, like, shrivel up and, like, die like a little prune or something. Because I know that you know that even trying to stay afloat in your content for a day or two is hard.

Laura Haley: Never mind, like, a [00:02:00] week or five days or something. out of touch. If it's totally not possible for you to have content done ahead of time like you normally would, I encourage you to have at least half of your content done. For just the time you're away.

Laura Haley: So rather than, like, let's say you're going away for like a week, like, hard. I'm turning my phone off, basically, for a week. Let's say you can't have your content done for a month. Maybe just try and have your content done for a week. So, maybe you post four times a week normally. Normal week, you post like four times a week.

Laura Haley: When you're gone, Why don't you post, like, twice a week? Schedule a post about twice a week. As you should know by now, if you are a regular listener, your content should be evergreen. Which means that no matter when someone comes to your page to see your content, they aren't looking at a trend. That expired weeks ago.

Laura Haley: [00:03:00] They're looking at evergreen content that is still relatable to them and makes them feel good and makes sense and makes them want to scroll further down your page. And yeah, by the way, go ahead and lower the number of times you post because one, it doesn't freaking matter that much, the number of times you're posting, as long as you're posting content that is evergreen.

Laura Haley: You're probably cramming in all of these things. Like you're ready to go off grid and you got to kind of get some shit done. Like that is kind of harder than I think people realize to go completely SOL. because there's so many little things involved. There's so many things you got to do before then.

Laura Haley: Which takes your time and attention. So if you can get at least a few posts done and scheduled to go out during the time you're gone, you've kind of done your job. You've kind of done what you needed to do. I promise nobody's wondering why you haven't posted. Like I pinky swear. I pinky swear.

Laura Haley: If they are, you can tell them to come to me. [00:04:00] Another tip I have is to make sure you have storage on your devices. So go ahead and slap Google, Apple, Dropbox, whatever you like, your credit card number. Okay? Make sure the expiration date is up to date. Because, like I said, you're never really fully out.

Laura Haley: You're never really fully out because you are probably capturing photos and videos of your travels because you can't freaking help it. So before you get out there, take a little peek to see how your storage is doing, what needs to be updated, can we delete some crap to make some more room before we, you know, spend more money on storage of photos and videos.

Laura Haley: My other tip, which I personally love doing, both, uh, Before I leave and after, when I get back from somewhere, is brain dumping what's most important. So, if you don't prioritize your life, somebody else will. So, I like to do a week before I'm out of service. [00:05:00] I encourage you to make a massive brain dump list of everything that has to happen before you're out.

Laura Haley: Do not include things that would be nice to have or nice to have happen before you leave. If you write down every damn thing you've been wanting to do all year on this list, you're going to stress yourself the hell out. I'm totally not speaking from experience or anything. I don't know anything about that.

Laura Haley: But carefully choose what needs to happen. For everything to go okay while you're gone and be incredibly specific and picky This is your permission slip to be picky, of course Obviously tell the important people you're gonna be gone Obviously tell your friends and family, any folks you're working with, where you'll be, why they, it doesn't really matter why they can't reach you, just that they can.

Laura Haley: Okay? one time I thought my friend was stuck in a snowbank in Alaska because she didn't respond to me for a few days when really she was in an [00:06:00] eco resort in Belize. So I'm officially on her to notify when out of the country list. So make sure you hit up those people. Okay My pro tip this is like the best thing i've one of the best things i've really ever done for my sanity Is to tell people you're out of office or you're out of service a day before you really leave for your trip And a day after you really come back.

Laura Haley: So once you do this, you'll never go back. I swear And it's so nice to have those buffer days in between when you just can take care of yourself and get done what needs to get done. So that you're not, as soon as you come back, it's like Monday morning, and you're opening your computer and you're like, Okay, yesterday I was literally in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and now today I have to do work.

Laura Haley: Like, The contrast is just striking and I know you've experienced this and have experienced this overwhelm and anxiety and it's just like, how can we make this better for ourselves? And that's by telling people you're gone for longer than you are. [00:07:00] Okay. Yes. Another thing you should do, that maybe you've never done before, is to write yourself a letter.

Laura Haley: So, this might be a little bit crazy, but just hear me out here. So, there's nothing like coming back to your computer after a long time away, when you've just been in this, like, incredible place with these awesome people, and all you see is a shit ton of emails that you don't want to put your head back into.

Laura Haley: I know you know the feeling. And, getting back into the swing. Of your more typical work routine, whatever that looks like for you, is tough. So before you leave, I encourage you to write a little note to yourself. You can do this physically or digitally, but tell yourself that it's okay to go slow. It's okay to not get everything done today.

Laura Haley: That's, it's, that's not what's important. Remind yourself to give yourself grace. Remember to rest, hydrate, and find a freaking laundromat. Or a place to do your laundry, I promise. Just these bare necessities. Okay? Remember the little [00:08:00] triangle of necessities we all learned about in psychology? Take care of those things, and I promise you'll show up better.

Laura Haley: Let me know on Instagram what you would add to this list. What do you feel like is the most important thing you try and do before heading out on a trip with zero service? Like what? Makes you feel good to have done and remember to only put things on this list that have to happen Not things that would be incredible to happen Like don't expect yourself to write an entire email sequence or like do an entire month of content the week before you leave Okay, it's not gonna happen.

Laura Haley: So don't beat yourself up about it. Just do what you can do. What's gonna get done is what's gonna get done. Let me know on instagram at @travelcontentwriting what I'm missing and what your non negotiables are before you head out of service Happy creating and I'll see you next week now this isn't a travel recommendation podcast But I have been traveling non [00:09:00] stop myself since 2021, and here's the stuff I always bring with me, okay?

Laura Haley: So as you're preparing to go out of service, bring these extra freaking things. The first is digestive health meds. If you know, you know. I do not need to say anything else. But this is shit you need only when you freaking need it. And God forbid, you're out in the middle of nowhere, and now your stomach hurts and you can do nothing about it.

Laura Haley: Yeah. Another thing I always bring is an extra tote bag. You will return with random things, the suitcase is never packed the same way. Okay, I'm also a team backpack. I always bring dryer sheets. Especially if I'm bringing a small bag, so nothing gets too stinky up in there. I always bring A cord to make my Bluetooth wireless headphones corded.

Laura Haley: So that when I'm conked out on a plane, if my Bluetooth expensive headphones fall out of my ears, I'm not going to lose them because they're attached to little cords. Highly recommend it. They're very inexpensive. The last thing I always make sure to have is multiple USB charging [00:10:00] cubes. And I'm not talking power banks, I'm talking the actual USB charger into the wall.

Laura Haley: I am someone whose tech is perpetually dead or has like 10 percent left. I've noticed that when I bring two cubes multiple ways to charge things I can charge all the things at once because everything is dead at one time and it really speeds up the entire freaking process. Let me know on instagram what Essential travel items you bring along.

Laura Haley: I'm dying to know. All right. I'll see you soon