What do you do if work-related travel is disrupting your work-life balance in Social Selling?

Being an international marketing professional, work-related travel is a key part of my day-to-day life. How do I manage it? For me, work and life are not separate; I try to see them as one scope. When you differentiate your work from your life, you find yourself struggling to balance them. I have a separate drawer for each aspect of my life, such as family, profession, friends, health, and work-related travel. However, all these drawers are in one cupboard, which I consider my whole life. When you are able to fix your mindset, work-related travel will not disturb you or your priorities. The most important part is enjoying what you do. If you can focus on the moment, everything will be a wonderful blessing for your life.

Balancing work-related travel and maintaining a healthy work-life balance in social selling can be challenging. It's important to prioritize tasks, establish boundaries, and communicate effectively with your team and clients to manage expectations and ensure a sustainable balance. Consider integrating technology to streamline tasks, such as virtual meetings or online networking events, reducing the need for extensive travel. Additionally, prioritize self-care practices and set aside dedicated time for personal activities to recharge and maintain overall well-being. Avoid traveling as far as possible and can be managed. In my opinion maintaining physical and mental fitness enhances performance.

On a lighter note, start something on your own if you have enough cash flow for the next 18 months. On a serious note, the impact of work-related travel varies from person to person according to their age group. For a bachelor, it may be fun, for a married couple it is still exciting, as sometimes they can travel together, and for a married couple with school-going kids, it would be a bigger challenge. Therefore, it is important to assess the priorities. A lot of times our bosses (sometimes clients) push us to travel and meet the client or team member at a location, which most of the time could have been avoided by asking a couple of open-ended questions to understand the importance of the meeting and then moving it to a virtual meeting.

Start by assessing your priorities both in your professional and personal life. Understand what aspects of your job require travel and what can be accomplished remotely. This understanding will help you make informed decisions about when and where your presence is absolutely necessary, versus when virtual participation could suffie.

Travel time for me (if not driving yourself) is the perfect time to utilise as social selling and personal brand time. You can easily dip in and engage with content on the move on the train, taxi or even plane with wifi now. Great times to catchup and get these social selling activities done in quick hits - a 10 min cab ride can be valuable time.

Establish clear boundaries for travel commitments. Decide how much travel is manageable and what times are off-limits due to personal responsibilities. Communicate these boundaries to your team and clients to set expectations. For example, you might decide to limit travel to no more than three days a week or to avoid weekend travel.

Make full use of technology to reduce the need for travel. Tools like video conferencing, real-time document collaboration, and social media can facilitate effective remote working and client engagement. Utilizing these tools not only saves travel time but also keeps you connected with clients and colleagues.

I utilise tech here such as Buffer to schedule posts. Other tools such as Linkedin Navigator can prompt you for triggers to engage with prospects. Use tech to make it easier and quicker to perform some of the social selling activities.

Flexibilit?t ist wie der Superkraft-Booster im Arsenal eines jeden Social Sellers. Reisen k?nnen deine Routine ganz sch?n durcheinander bringen, aber hey, keine Panik! Sei vorbereitet, wie ein Ninja des Netzwerkens, bereit, deine Strategien und Zeitpl?ne nach Bedarf anzupassen. Wenn das Universum (oder der Flugplan) dir eine Zitrone gibt, mach Limonade daraus! Verschiebt sich ein Meeting oder wird eine Reise verl?ngert? Nutze diese Zeit, um neue Verbindungen zu knüpfen oder deine Marktforschung aufzufrischen. Mit einer flexiblen Denkweise verwandelst du potenzielle St?rungen in M?glichkeiten. Bleibe agil, bleibe reaktionsf?hig – so meisterst du spielend die dynamische Business Welt des Social Selling!

Don't sweat it. LinkedIn is but one of many social media channels. Unless you're using social media to save lives, the world isn't going to end if you're AWOL for a while. Put your out-of-office message on LinkedIn and leave a mobile number - anyone who urgently needs you can still contact you.

If your job is in social selling, your company needs to be aware that travel will impact your productivity, as staying connected most of the time is crucial. It's important to have a conversation with your manager to understand if the trips align with the expected outcomes.