Staying productive while travelling is not easy. In fact it’s pretty much the biggest challenge you’ll face if you want to live this lifestyle and spend time in places most people only visit on vacation.
- Plan Before You Go –
The most important advice for working travel may not be apps and gadgets, but time management. Often we think a six-hour flight will be six hours of productivity, but it’s not. Many people have found the time is better spent doing creative work or brainstorming than heavier tasks. Paper is one popular iPad app that provides a blank slate, perfect for expressing ideas through notes or sketches. An actual notebook and pen will also work — and can be used during takeoff.
- Work Offline –
You can brainstorm, mind-map, write, plan, design, and do so many more activities offline. Don’t prevent yourself from working just because you don’t have Wi-FI. You’ll find that working offline is quite fulfilling. You’ll have less distractions, and will do better work. Carry a pen and moleskin notebook at all times. Use your devices in offline mode. You don’t have to be online to get real work done.
- Â Have the Right Tools –
Invest in the right tools to make working from anywhere as easy as possible. Whether it be a USB microphone, a good set of noise-cancelling headphones, or a travel adapter. Invest in the tools you need now. If you don’t, you may regret it.
Backup Your Wi-Fi –
There’s probably one key piece of information you’ll need that’s only accessible via the Internet, whether it’s your own notes saved to the cloud or the correct spelling of someone’s name. And sometimes the Internet is so close, yet so far away, either because you’ll pay for an hour when you only need five minutes or your laptop and the Wi-Fi aren’t friends, even though the barista gave you the password.
If you’d like to skip the stress and carry a Wi-Fi backup with you, you may want to purchase a MiFi device (essentially a portable router) or Karma, which offers a pay-as-you-go plan and may be better for intermittent needs. You can also create a hotspot via your smartphone.
- Communicate to Your Office Before You Leave –
Before heading out, meet with your project teams to get status updates and review upcoming deadlines. Augustine emphasizes that it’s extremely important to communicate to your team when you’ll be available by phone or checking your email, and when you’ll be totally unavailable. Also let everyone know how you’d like to be contacted in case of emergency (By emails marked “Urgent?”), so you can address pressing issues between meetings. Then, set your out-of-office message to indicate a point person for inquiries and set communication expectations (e.g., “If you have a question pertaining to the sales conference next month, please contact Amanda Johnston. I will respond to general inquiries when I return to the office on Monday.”)
- Get Familiar With Your Destination –
Before you actually arrive, find out where you’ll be staying and what’s nearby. Where’s the closest grocery store where you can grab some snacks? Is the conference center within walking distance? Pearlstein suggests figuring out how hard it’ll be to find a cab, particularly at night (if you’re not in a high-traffic area, it might be better to arrange for a car service). Knowing this information before you arrive will save you valuable time when you get there—so you can settle in and get right to work. (But since you’ll probably still have to make some on-the-fly decisions, load up your phone or tablet with apps that make travel a lot easier, like OpenTable for dinner reservations and Uber for car service.)
BY PRATIKSHA TRIVEDI
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