Lowering the Stress of Business Travel

My boss, who also travels a lot, reminded me of the One Big Travelers' Lesson that I have neglected to post until now:

Your Flight Will be Late!

So take a deep breath, and plan for it. Expect it to happen, and you won't be disappointed either way.

I'm not always a patient man, but this is one area where I may have finally developed a bit of real patience. Here are some steps to take to keep your cool when you discover--at the gate, of course--that your flight is delayed by an hour or more:

1. Schedule the flight so that you arrive at least two hours before you actually have to be there. If the delay doesn't make you late for an appointment, you won't feel as stressed. Perhaps the rule of thumb should be two hours per time zone: The further you need to travel, and the more stops you make, the greater your chances of being delayed.
   
2. Schedule any layovers so that they are sufficiently long, otherwise you may miss your connection. But obviously not too long. See #1 for guidance. Usually one to two hours is plenty.
   
3. Bring plenty of things to keep you occupied during all the delays. I usually take some business related tasks (call the boss, work on the laptop, fill out some paperwork, read something technical) and some personal tasks or relaxing activities (bills, books, magazines, music, movies). These aren't things that I have to get done today. If they were, then I'd be stressed when delays didn't occur! Also, extended phone calls are very difficult at the noise-laden terminal, so I won't call an old friend, or a new client. I try to bring things I can do on the plane, so I won't limit myself to electronic stuff. Reading material is best. I bring my own, but I'm rather particular about the books and magazines I read. If you like the usual magazines, fine newspapers, or the latest best-sellers, you can probably find something at the terminal.
4. Bring snacks. Unless you've had time to scope out the best snacks and restaurants at your usual airports, you may get quite hungry. A small snack can keep you going--and keep you calm--during the delay. I usually bring or buy one small but complete meal to eat at the terminal or on the plane, and then dry stuff (granola bars, bananas, nuts) to keep me going. I pack snacks in my briefcase, so I can munch on something at any time.
   
5. When you hear that announcement, try not getting mad. Note that I didn't say "try not to get mad," but actually make an effort to keep from groaning, yelling, or cursing under your breath. Are you really surprised? After years of business travel, I'm not. These days, I often find myself smiling, thankful for the time to catch up on some reading.
6. If it helps you to feel self-conscious about your anger (which, for me, is a great way to learn how to let it go), keep this in mind: Seasoned travelers can recognize the newbies by how upset and vocal they get when the flight is delayed.
   

Avoiding Burnout

Let me tell you about my schedule during most of 2002. This occurred weekly, almost every week for a year:

Sunday morning I would take a taxi to the bus station and take a bus to SFO. I would then fly to DTW, rent a car, and drive to Ann Arbor. That was at least an eight hour day, door to door. And, Ann Arbor is on East Coast time.

Friday evening, I would leave the client's office as early as possible, drive frantically from Ann Arbor to DTW (20 to 40 minutes), drop off the rental car, sprint to my flight (and, if you've been to the new Detroit Northwest Airlines terminal, you know that this can be a literal 1/2 mile jog, worst case, which was also the typical case, due to Murphy's Laws of Travel). One time, when the flight was on-time, they were about to close the doors with me on the wrong side of the porthole. That was as close as I have ever been to being denied a seat on my flight.

If the flight was delayed, then--upon arrival in SFO five hours later--I had to sprint from the arriving terminal to the bus stop. (On those weekly DTW to SFO flights, I never checked luggage!) Fortunately, I never missed the last bus (at midnight), but I often missed the bus that I had planned to take at 11PM. Hurry up and wait, as the saying goes. To top it all off, the bus had multiple stops between San Francisco and Santa Rosa. There were times when I wouldn't get to bed until 3AM Pacific, 6AM Eastern, after spending a week trying to adapt to the Eastern time zone.

And Saturday was usually spent sleeping off the jetlag, and doing laundry.

But I'm not whining. I actually enjoyed that gig. I made a couple of good friends in Ann Arbor, and I made an obscene amount of money. But the stress was starting to wear me down.

What would I do differently today? I would certainly park my car near SFO. Eventually the bus fare got so high that off-airport parking became cheaper than taking the bus round-trip. At the time, I was very frugal: I was the business, so a dollar of business expense was nearly a dollar out of my own pocket. With my own car readily available, I wouldn't have to arrive on-time, and I wouldn't have to wait. Less expensive in terms of money, time, sanity, and life-expectancy.

Other things I would do differently today would be business-related: I now schedule Monday as a travel day, and I would try to plan to be elsewhere at least one week every two months, at a minimum. To that end, a consultant should try to have multiple clients. These are subtle reminders to the client that (a) you're not an employee, and (b) you have other sources of income.

But even if that other client turns out to be your family, and your projects are mowing the lawn and painting the guest room, you will thank yourself. I've noticed that the more money I made, the more "expensive" a week of unpaid vacation would seem. "Missed opportunity" we self-congratulating investors like to call it. What a load of crap! We serve the clients better when we take care of ourselves, too.

With the wonderful job I have now, we try to keep travel down to every other week. And we mostly succeed.