Out of Office: Aim to Be Efficient, and Always Know Where You’re Going

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers and members share their business travel advice and stories from life on the road. Read all the posts here.

Like many of you who travel regularly for work, I want to maximize my efficiency and minimize my time away from the office and house. I prefer to sleep in my own bed, so I try to leave early in the morning and return by bedtime. All of us like nonstop flights, of course, but I try to look at the big picture and leverage trips as much as possible.

I plan a lot of my travel a year in advance and I try to accomplish more than one task per trip. Sometimes that’s not practical, of course. But if you can check off three boxes on one three-day trip, that’s better than three two-day trips spread over three weeks. For example, on a recent trip to San Antonio (my hometown) for business, I made time to visit with our local employees, participate in a press conference, do some media interviews, have a private meeting, and fly back home to Dallas — all in one day. Needless to say, I slept well that night, but it was a restful sleep knowing I had maximized my time to be as productive as I could be on the one trip.

Like almost everyone who travels, I’ve experienced my disasters. Weather can wreak havoc on airline schedules, and I’ve had my share of lengthy delays and cancellations (yes, even an airline CEO gets delayed every once in a while).

My worst trip was on another airline before I joined Southwest — it was about 30 years ago and 100% self-inflicted. I had made plans to take a Friday afternoon flight from San Francisco to Dallas to make it home in time to meet my wife, Carol, for dinner. I boarded the airplane and was assigned a seat that someone else already occupied (that should have been clue number one that I had inadvertently boarded the wrong flight).

The flight attendant announced there would be a movie on this flight. I thought, “How nice, I normally don’t get a movie!” (that was clue number two). I was assigned a middle seat on a DC-10 and, an hour into the flight, I discovered that we were en route to JFK — not DFW. Yikes!

Let’s just say that my wife and friends had quite a field day with my misadventure. The irony that I now “run” an airline is not lost on me, of course. However, I saw the enchanting movie, “Splash,” for the first time. So, all was not lost. I had to spend the night in New York and got home Saturday afternoon to a lot of ribbing.

My best advice? Know where the heck you are going.

Photo: Author's Own