How to be productive while traveling?

I recently overheard a gentleman saying that he travels a lot due to which he doesn’t have time for anything else. This in a way was slightly surprising for me, because for me traveling is a way of life. My passion lets me travel a lot and I get a lot done during my travel. I discussed with some other friends and realized they also feel that during travel they can’t do much. So here are my two bits on how to be productive during your travel.

To be productive while traveling you need to first have the right mindset. Make a list of things that you need to accomplish while you are traveling. Once you have the list then you will know what to do with the time during your travel. It’s about finding your own time in the chaotic environment around you. Always focus on the light work while waiting for the aircraft or train or any other transport, because your mind will be in a state of anxiousness, you don’t want to miss your vehicle. So a light reading, listening to the podcast, watching a short video, checking a few emails, replying to messages are the perfect things to do.

If you are flying or being driven around then you have time for intense stuff. You can work on your presentation, write something, focus on creating new concepts, and watch a movie or documentary. In case you are driving for a long distance you can utilize this time to make calls via speaker phone it should be like you are talking to the person sitting next to you, remember taking on the phone while driving is illegal and can get you in prison, so be smart about it.

Planning ahead always helps, for me the biggest issues used to be forgetting to charge my laptop, a good idea is to get all your devices charged up, also while finding a seat try one closer to the charging points. You can also carry a spike guard, that way you can have multiple devices being charged from the same socket. This also helps you in making new friends, if you know what I mean.

For me productivity is not just about doing work all the time, its also about learning and experiencing new things. It is about taking adequate rest or chatting up with a stranger next to me, sharing a coffee or a beer and creating stories. Most of the time during your travel people surround you but still, you are alone, this could be a good time to reflect upon yourself.

I give myself a travel goal, these are the goals which I am supposed to do only when I travel, this makes my travel interesting. Some of my goals while traveling are drinking 100 different types of beers, learning Spanish (I use Duolingo for learning), writing a couplet, watch a documentary, write something about the place, which I just visited, etc. The possibilities are endless it’s all about what you like, go for it. You can also carry some board games with you, this works well when you are on a long trip and have layovers, others are also hanging around you not knowing what to do. Pulling out a game and asking others to join makes the place completely vibrant. You end up having lovely friends. The most productive thing you can do during your travel.

-by Vincent Panangadon