Before everything goes wrong...

How Much Time Do You Need?

The first rule of anything, whether it be sports, building a house, or travel, is that any successful project begins with solid planning.

The biggest pitfall for people who travel is the unexpected. Planes being delayed, traffic, bad weather, lost bags and so on. All of these are things that are out of our control. When you travel, you put a lot of your trust, money and time in the hands of someone else. Someone who doesn't necessarily see you as their biggest priority during your moment of crisis. The best advice I think I can give to anyone planing a trip is to plan for the moment when everything goes wrong. Make sure that you keep as much of your freedom in your hands as possible by always allowing extra time for the hiccups that are sure to come.

Many business travelers have another individual, possibly a secretary or travel agent, book all of their appointments, hotels, flights and so on. I have found that when you leave the planing up to someone else you often find yourself arriving at your destination at 2:30 in the morning the day of your 8 am appointment. Or after completing your meeting at 11:30am you then sitting at the airport for hours only to catch a red eye flight back home. All because someone else planned your travel with little regard for your time or what makes the most logical sense.

Many travelers have to use the companies travel agent or are honestly to busy to book their own travel, but for those that can, it is well worth it. As a business traveler you also have a budget and probably a set number of days you can be gone for a meeting or conference. Your superiors probably are not chill with you taking a week for a 2 day conference. Especially if it is in Vegas. However, I have found that most business professionals are allowed to go out the day before or come back the day after the "work" part of the trip.

I am not a morning person. So being able to plan my own travel to suit my needs is important to me. I am not a fan of  6am flights or 8am meetings when traveling from west to east. Be aware of time changes. My plans usually include going out the afternoon or evening before a meeting or conference. That way I have time when I arrive to get my transportation, get my hotel, get my bags to my hotel, check my email and relax for an hour or two before getting to sleep. Trips where I go out the day of an event usually result in a plane delay, a lost car reservation, lost bag, the presentation materials being lost by FedEx or being unable to drop extra bags at the hotel.

Having the evening before allows the time to take care of all necessities without the time crunch. Also, after wrapping up an event, I allow plenty of time to get to the airport, get my rental dropped off, get through security and get my shoes back on before my flight takes off. Planing ahead and making sure you have time to be well rested and bring your A-game to a meeting is very important. If your company has spent the money to send you out there, make sure you are ready to roll when the time comes. Sometimes the extra night away from home can make the difference in how prepared you are for your meeting.

So when you sit down to plan out that business meeting to Seattle, think ahead about where you might be tight on time and make a plan on what to do if something goes wrong. Until next time I am....

Currently out of the Office

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