Greetings and a Very Happy New Year. Here is wishing all of you loads of great journeys in your personal and professional lives. Welcome to the  first edition of Journeys and Jottings from 2016 .

Wishing a happy new year

The focus for this year is the blog. As a decade of blogging ends and another begins, my transition from a hobbyist to an amateur to a professional blogger is almost complete. Professional blogging is not just about monetising in my opinion. It is also about an entire mindset, a change in approach and attitude. And that element of professionalism shows through in your work.

I am trying to bridge the time gap between travelling and blogging. With all the constant travel, there is no time to work on the blog and this is something that am planning to focus this year. I am also learning about the new trends in social media and  spending more time reading blogs and interacting with fellow bloggers. Like any other profession, a work life balance is required. Many of my work trips, especially the short haul ones which are rather unplanned are quite tiring when they are back to back. I am not complaining as they offer me varied experiences besides of course moolah, but I have realized that I need a good mix of short haul, long haul, personal and professional trips. I am also planning to give the blog a new look soon – so that is something on the agenda.

As I write this post, I am still planning my travel and blogging calendar for the next quarter. While the latter is almost ready, the first is a wee bit empty. But am sure, as the year passes by, the dates will be filled as well .Coming up this month on the blog – stories from Bhutan and Indonesia besides Andamans and Gujarat.

This year, I am also focussing on Weekends – so there are Twelve Weekends of 2016. This month will focus Patan and Modhera on the Weekend Special.

I have some giveaways as well, post cards that I have picked up from various destinations – so if you are interested, do follow me on twitter @lakshmisharath and DM me your address or send a message on my facebook page – www.facebook.com/travelwithlakshmi.  I would also really appreciate it if you can follow me on Instagram as well – www.instagram.com/lakshmisharath. Thank you.

Looking forward to more interactions – meanwhile would appreciate your feedback as well.