Peaceful and Productive Traveling by Meggin McIntosh, PhD

Traveling puts tremendous strain on a person’s productivity…because of the wear and tear on your body, mind, soul, and emotions. It’s important to recognize this and to be proactive in addressing these issues. Think about the following:

1. Consider your mental needs and provide for those needs while traveling (e.g., good books to read; paper and a wonderful pen for writing; something to listen to on your iPod or other MP3 player; an agreement with yourself to just ‘turn off’ and sit, i.e., without doing anything).
2. Consider your emotional needs and provide for those needs while traveling (e.g., phone numbers of people you care about so that you can give them a call; time to disconnect from others; reminders of your loved ones such as pictures or mementos).
3. Consider your physical needs and provide for those needs while traveling (e.g., special pillows; hand lotion; wrist braces to wear when lifting; avoiding late nights or early mornings, if possible, especially when you have changed time zones).
4. Invest in the technology you need to stay connected while traveling (e.g., cell phone; proper cords; the right software).
5. Consider what your time is worth and spend the money necessary to make the best use of your time (e.g., $9.95 to connect to the Internet in your hotel room is worth it if you will have fewer emails to deal with once you get home).
6. Tip well and get the help you need. How much would a trip to the chiropractor cost vs. tipping for some assistance at the hotel? Tipping well helps you and it helps the other person. Keep the money and the good energy flowing.
7. Drink a great deal of water. You really can’t overdo this one. Drink water all day while you are traveling. If you are thirsty, then you are already several glasses of water behind on your consumption. Don’t avoid drinking water on planes because you don’t want to go to the bathroom on the plane. You’re better to drink the water and deal with the tiny, kind of icky bathroom.
8. Eat decently. You know what that means for you. If you are at least 10 years old, you know you’ve learned from some previous eating mistakes – and you know what helps you keep your optimum energy, which is just what you need when you’re traveling. Eat the right things – not the wrong ones, no matter how tempting the latter may be. I doubt you really need me to make a list here (but if you need one, just email me).
9. Get a reasonable amount of sleep. Have earplugs and medication, as needed. Traveling is exhausting and if you aren’t getting decent sleep then you can really get run down – and possibly sick.
10. Plan for recovery days after travel–to recover physically, mentally, emotionally, and work-wise. Just block in one or more days immediately following the out-of-town trip. Use that day for recovering: time zone readjustment, email processing, getting your luggage unpacked, and so forth. You will be much fresher on the 2nd day back and ready to get moving productively if you have taken that recover day to make the transition.

Travel, whether for business or for pleasure, is a challenge. Make it more productive for yourself by following one or more of my suggestions. Apply one or more of these right away and see what happens. Be clear on your intent to be more productive.

And if you like these tips and find yourself feeling overwhelmed, you will want to access the Just Whelmed Weekly Workshops. Each week you will receive mini workshops that are designed to help you reduce your stress so you can become just whelmed