One of the biggest drawbacks of business travelers is that your focus lies in zipping through airports, meeting clients and checking into hotels. You end up with little time to concentrate on your office work. These five strategies, however, should help you make an organized and productive trip so that you don’t return to an office loaded with work and stress.
Web in air
While the increase of in-flight internet is a big improvement for frequent fliers, access to web in the air isn’t cheap. The best way to save money here is by buying a Gogo day pass ahead of time through the airline’s site or Gogo’s official site.
Even internet connectivity in hotels is rather expensive. The solution here lies in joining hotels’ frequent stay programs that provide free Wi-Fi access to members. Even staying in a less glitzy room helps if you have a limited expense account.
Keep all devices charged
One of the most irritating things to occur is having your phone or computer die in the midst of an important meeting. However with so many devices around like tablets, smartphones and cameras most people find it difficult keeping up with its charging rotation.
Instead of letting charging consume your evening, you can keep your devices charged using wearable chargers or solar panel chargers.
Maintain connectivity on the move
You may not have a reliable Wi-Fi connection when you are in a restaurant, train cabin or at an airport service counter. You’re constant searching, connecting and disconnecting can sap your productivity and even make you lose some work.
A better proposition is to grab a mobile hotspot before leaving for your trip where you can connect to a maximum of 15 of your Wi-Fi enabled devices to your company’s 4G LTE network. Some hotspots even charge your devices when connected. You can also use a personal router to share your hotel’s Wi-Fi connection with all your devices.
A productivity den
It’s surprising how productive you can become in a hotel room setting as you don’t have coworkers coming by your desk or constant noise barrages to tolerate. So try recreating an in-office condition in your hotel when you are out of office. Adjust your thermostat to 77 degrees as research proves that this is when typing errors fell by 44%, and typing output increased by 150%.
Replicate your normal rhythms like if you are used to working through emails and then doing projects, maintain the same routine. If you have lunch at the desk at noon, order your lunch at 11.30 so that you can have it at noon. If you usually go for a walk at about 4 pm to unwind before work, use Yelp to find a nearby park you can walk or drive to.
Last but not least
If you are a frequent business traveler with loads of work ahead, briefly deemphasize your work during short flights and concentrate on a brain game. No matter what your age, brain games like Sudoku and cognitive exercise platforms like Lumosity help reinforce your mind’s problem-solving and logic skills and consequent productivity on the move.
