 Many of us joined the meetings and hospitality industry, so we would have opportunity to travel Travel to new places new cities and meet new people The problem is when we're traveling the world keeps on turning the emails still keep rolling in and then when we get back To the office we're behind on our work. So we're going to talk about some productivity tips today for those of you Who are traveling it's Leanne traveling for our jobs is inevitable But it doesn't mean that productivity can lay waste while we're out on the road There's lots of things that you can do while you're traveling to keep your productivity high and to keep those projects rolling along So we're going to talk about some tips that will help you stay productive while you're traveling So when you come back to your workplace, you're not feeling already Exhausted by the amount of stuff that you need to catch up on while you were out of the office Tip number one make sure you do enable your out-of-office Email and your voicemail if you have one and ensure that there's a backup at your office that can field any emails in your absence I've actually gotten into the habit of stating in my out-of-officing email where I'm heading and Peeking curiosity about the destination. I'm going to or the conference. I'm going to Sometimes even putting in what speakers. I'm going to see it could create a nice open door for dialogue and conversation with your colleagues Tip number two Wi-Fi on the airplane now most airplanes have enabled Wi-Fi It does come at a cost but if there are projects that require your immediate attention and perhaps you can use that time in the airplane to focus on those Projects and they do require Wi-Fi Spend the five dollars get the Wi-Fi spend that otherwise Uninterrupted time on the airplane tending to those projects now if you don't need Wi-Fi and you can maybe tend to some other Strategic projects without being online the airplane is a great great place to do that I usually use the airplane to draft a lot of my blog posts that you see as well as draft a ton of returned emails and then when I land I hit send and There go my 30 emails that I drafted on the plane tips number three and four are my Favorite on this list and that is to disconnect all together if you're traveling It's a great time for you to disconnect turn off your phones your computers even stop communicating with people at the office or people at home and Tend to some strategic projects that you've probably put on the back burner waiting for the that opportune time to address them Use this time now while you're on the road Chances are you're maybe by yourself at least in your hotel room for a few hours. What a great time to tackle those projects You may also be able to use your traveling time as a mini business retreat I like to go on these little retreats where I turn off again all my notifications And I just focus on my business plan at hand or any other strategic project that I'm working on And if you can fit those days in and around your travel schedule for work Obviously, you've saved yourself some flight and hotel costs But you're away from all the other distractions in your life And this is such such a great time to tackle those other projects that you want to tend to Chances are a lot of the times you're feeling exhausted while you're traveling simply because you're out of routine If you can do your best to stay in your routine Including healthy sleep habits healthy eating habits and exercise while you're away Chances are your productivity will be high in and out of all those meetings that you're doing while you're traveling So eat well sleep right and get to bed early after those fun party nights with your clients Sometimes our travels require us to schedule a ton of meetings back-to-back in the same day try your best to map out meetings in certain geographical areas and clump them together and Reduce the amount of time that you're traveling between meetings So if you can divide your city into a quadrant of four and divide the times in those different quadrants Now you're saving on travel time travel costs maybe even parking costs if you're in the same building Clumping those meetings together will ensure that you're staying productive while you're on the road Speaking of the road if you are renting a car I highly recommend getting something you can stick on your windshield so you can attach your phone or your GPS That'll save you trying to find your destination as well Potentially even find parking now if you're like me and enjoy the uber or taxi ride format Again map out your destinations Make sure they're all in the same city to cut down on those uber costs But uber is a great way to almost relax between meetings because you don't have to frantically try and find your meeting And you can focus on the meeting content while relaxing in the backseat of a timely uber ride When you're in your hotel room, make sure you have a good set of headset or earphones So that you can make some business calls while you're you have some downtime in your hotel room And all that stuff that I mentioned that you need to pack along you need to put it in a well-organized Laptop bag now. I'm a big believer in the matte matte Laptop bags does this thing look as big on camera as it looks for my vantage point It looks massive. Um, it is massive actually. Uh, this is the matte matte Perguio diaper bag. That's right It's a diaper bag, but it has all the compartments I need to keep me organized when I'm traveling. You might not want to use a diaper bag You definitely should look into Matt and Matt They have a ton of different laptop bags and diaper bags that might be suitable for your type of travel But have a well organized bag with socks with pencils with your headset your earphones all of those Goodies that are going to make your trip productive while you're out And finally take advantage of the time that you're out of the office and give yourself a break It doesn't always have to be go go go and work work work Pack a book a magazine go for a walk take some time for yourself to enjoy the destination you're in And that will also fuel your creativity and then of course Fuel your productivity as well when you're ready to tend to your work projects again For more productivity tips for meeting planners, you can check out my blog at leanne calderwood.com I have a category called productivity pantry, which has a ton of resources for productivity geeks like yourself Including some checklists and best practices that you can download You can find those also in the link below this youtube video and you can go straight over there and sign up for those resources today We work in an incredibly fun and entertaining industry And if you get opportunity to travel that is definitely one of the many perks that we enjoy when being in the meetings industry Good luck to you this travel season and I hope to see you next time. Bye for now