5 Tips for Boosting Business Trip Productivity

When jetting off to a business trip, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle-and-bustle of uncharted territory, jam-packed airport terminals, and hotel luxury. That said, traveling professionals will need to give their overworked brains a much-needed reality check that this business trip isn’t a vacation. It’s time spent on the company’s dime.

In a perfect world, businesswomen and businessmen shouldn’t view working on-the-go any differently from the office’s average Monday morning. Whether you’re miles away from home or sitting in a crowded boardroom, your focus should always be on efficiency and productivity. Workplace productivity is vitally important to every business because that’s the engine that ultimately drives revenue for the company.

For customers, a company’s productivity usually translates into quality products/services and good customer service. For employees, high levels of productivity usually lend to promotions, perks, and other financial rewards.

That said, don’t tumble into a work slump the second your plane leaves the gate. While your brain will automatically associate an airport terminal with a luxury vacation, you’ll need to resist the urge to kick back and relax. Instead, you’ll need to switch on business-trip mode and stick to your 9-to-5 rituals, this time 38,000 feet in the air.

Besides pulling out your laptop the second the flight attendants give you the go-ahead, you’ll need to adopt other productivity-boosting strategies. When taking extended business trips, consider car transport services. That way, you can have your vehicle at ready access, optimize every spare minute of your time spent out-of-office, and avoid wasting precious company time waiting around for rideshare services and public transportation.

As for ways to make sure your business trips are highly productive, here are five tips for your consideration.

Load your technology arsenal

In the office, you always have every device you could ever need within arm’s reach. Unfortunately, stuffing a desktop computer in the overhead compartment won’t be possible.

When planning your business trip, you’ll want to make sure you take what you need to maintain optimal productivity, including laptops, smartphones, cell phone chargers, laptop chargers, etc. Also, you want to make sure you will have data connectivity on your flights and at the hotel. Avoid falling into vacation mode by being reachable at all times.

Coordinate with your team

While on the road, you still have a responsibility to manage your team’s productivity while remote. The key to success here is setting schedules with your team before your departure. You’ll also want to ensure you can call in at a moment’s notice and check your emails at regular intervals.

Study the area

Once you know where you’re heading, you can save a lot of time familiarizing yourself with the area. Things you will want to focus on are:

• How to get from hotel to work/meeting destination
• Food services in the area
• Availability of conference space
• Hotels close to work or conference areas
• Transportation accessibility

Plan out your work schedule

When on a business trip, your time will be devoted to traveling, business, and the rare few hours of downtime. For a stress-free journey, plan out your day to a tee. That should include trying to anticipate how much time you’ll spend working and what work tasks you can handle during downtime.

Make a checklist

Being away from the office will likely create a sense of disarray. The last thing you want to do is miss a critical deadline or upset a customer simply because you were out-of-office. While on the plane in transit to your business destination, that would be the right time to put together a checklist of tasks you need to accomplish. Cruising at 38,000 feet is also an excellent time to practice using that notepad option on your smartphone.

Conclusion

Don’t let your brain trick you into believing that a business trip is an opportune time to unwind. Instead, pay close attention to where your falling short and work to correct these periods of low-productivity. While you will have a few hours to hit the hotel jacuzzi, your primary goal should be to maintain optimal productivity even thousands of miles away from your office space.