5 Tips For Traveling When You Own Your Own Business
As a lot of you know- I’ve been on the go most of the last couple months. Between traveling to Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, California, South Carolina, and now Florida in a few days- my entire life has been out of a suitcase. BUT, by the grace of God or the universe or whatever you believe in, I’ve been able to continue to successfully run my business while being gone. Here’s how I did it:
Work ahead of time.
Before I’ve left for a trip, I’ve taken the days leading up to do the things I know I’d be more comfortable doing from my office space in my house and things I know I’d struggle with while traveling. I finished up client logos and sites and put the more of the day-to-day stuff and things working more in my business to the back-burner since I knew those were things that took minimal focus and time.
That way, I could knock those out easily (even if sitting in an airport waiting on a flight) and not feel guilty about “getting behind” in work because I was still able to really check things off my list and get the things done. Planning ahead is what saved me time and energy on all of my trips and gave me the ability and permission to really rest and relax and explore without feeling like I was getting behind on the big things. Write down what you need to accomplish the week before you go, and wait on the things that you know will be easier to do when you are gone and traveling.
Use commutes, airport wait time, flight times, and every other minute wisely.
Every second can count and realize that working doesn’t necessarily mean client work, guys! Working can be working on business development and working on other things in your business as well. I would make sure I read business books, downloaded business podcasts, and really took myself to the personal development gym when I could (particularly the times I knew I wouldn’t have internet/wifi).
I would connect my computer to wifi on the planes and work through the flights, and that helped tremendously with getting work done. It’s all about thinking of how you can optimize every second of the actual travel, so when you get there you can take more time to really rest and relax and enjoy your trip.
Set specific work hours while you’re gone.
This may be the single most important thing I did to stay on track with my business while traveling. It is so important to set boundaries so you know exactly when you need to be working each day. I told myself I’d wake up at seven each morning and work until eleven everyday. This made me not feel guilty as I was still getting work in, and four hours of focused work a day can be extremely powerful.
It also helped me not feel bad when I took the evenings off to go explore the town I was in because I still felt connected and aligned with my current projects and I was able to serve my clients even better by setting those boundaries with my work.
Keep yourself in your routine as much as you can.
I absolutely thrive off of being in a routine and I do not do well at all when I am out of my routine. I told myself that even when I travel- I need to stick to the same routine when I get up for work. I wake up, journal, meditate, make coffee, make the bed, open the blinds, walk the dog, then begin work. This stays the same whether I’m making a bed at an Airbnb or my own home. I think keeping my brain in that routine helps me feel like I am “going to work” (if you will) and sets the tone of my day.
Don’t be hard on yourself and don’t spend your entire trip working.
This is something I still struggle with, but the entire reason I became an entrepreneur is for location freedom. I wanted to be able to travel the world without confining it to just ten days of vacation time a year. I knew that I wanted to be able to work from a laptop and see the world. I wanted to live more. That was always my motivation to really make owning a business happen.
When you take a vacation- only work if you need to. And don’t spend your entire trip working. Don’t feel bad if you don’t mark everything off your to-do list that day. Work will be there when you come back- enjoy the experiences of life and remember that.
