Mark Cohen, Metlife, on Staying Productive During Business Travel

Business travel can always take a toll on your focus and productivity. If you’re taking long and frequent trips for business, chances are that you’re heading to conferences or somewhere where you’ll be having long meetings and a lot of work to get done. Even while traveling for your company, there’s going to be regular work you need to get done in that time. If you want to stay on track with your schedule, it’s important that you learn how to stay productive while traveling for business.

Plan (and work) ahead

If you want to be as productive as possible while traveling, you need to have a plan in place for what you want to work on during your trip. You might need to study data, prepare a report, read through something a colleague sent, or write a document. Consider what kind of travel you’re doing, whether flying or driving, and plan what you’ll do when. You can take calls while you’re driving or listen to helpful audio. While you’re in the airport, get out your laptop and take care of any work that requires an internet connection. Save work that you can do without a steady connection for the plane in case you can’t access the internet. When you have downtime, plan how long you’ll spend on work and how long you want to take to sightsee or recharge.

Turn off distractions

In crowded areas like an airport, it can be especially challenging to successfully focus on the work at hand. Invest in a great pair of noise canceling headphones, but make sure you don’t miss any important announcements about your flight; set up alerts on your phone or to your email about details related to your flight. You can also mute notifications on your phone, so you don’t get distracted by messages or calls that aren’t related to work.

Make every moment count

The key to staying productive while traveling for business is to make every moment of your travel count. Even if you only have 15 minutes, check and respond to some emails. Work on projects in sections so you can get something done even if you only have a few free minutes. It can be tempting to wait until you’re settled into your hotel room to get started on work, but you’ll likely be too tired to work for hours.

Take care of yourself

If you want to stay productive, you need to take care of yourself. Make sure you do not wear yourself too thin while traveling; get plenty of rest and stay hydrated. If you’re on a long flight and heading to a different time zone, try to adjust to the new hours ahead of time. Avoid eating excessive amounts of unhealthy food; try to find something as healthy as possible.

About the Author

Mark Cohen is a financial professional who has previously worked at BCG Securities and Metlife. Mark has extensive experience working as a financial advisor and enjoys being able to help others successfully manage their personal finances. He feels that working in finance provides a challenging environment where there are constant developments and changes. Mark Cohen has enjoyed great success in his career and achieved much at the various companies he's worked at, including building a talented team of investors, being recognized in the top one percent of financial advisors in the country, and being recognized in the top 20 of advisors throughout the country.