The trials and tribulations of frequent business travel & how to adapt to a new way of working when it suddenly grinds to a halt

So I am certainly no stranger to having to work in less than convenient locations.

I’ve hunched over my laptop on the rickety tables of flights and high-speed intercity trains, carefully balanced it on my knee in a bumpy cab ride frantically trying to fire out emails whilst simultaneously trying to bark directions into google translate for the driver. I’ve set up “office” in hotel receptions, airport lounges, side-street ‘Pho soup’ cafes…hey, I even sent a contract to a client from the bubble tram at the top of Canton Tower in Guangzhou! Ah, how our friends and family envy the glamour of business travel.

This is the life of a Business Development Manager who spends around 70% of the year on the road (or in the air, if you want to get really technical about it) You grab 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there to answer phones call, messages, emails between meetings, whilst eating, when you should really be sleeping etc...and somehow it just works, the adrenaline flows and everything gets done.

But suddenly you find yourself “grounded” with plenty of places to go, things to do and people to see…but no way of getting there. Normally you would head to the comfort of your office, but at a time when ‘social distancing’ is more encouraged than ever before and working from home is the safest, most sensible and considerate option, overnight it seems that your comfortable leather chair, glossy desk and espresso machine have been whisked away, and replaced with an apartment that realistically has served you as more of a ‘really large wardrobe/storage unit’ than a 'home' for the past 18 months.

So you would think after all of the above, that one would adapt easily right? Not so much. There’s something about working from home that is intrinsically more challenging than anywhere else in the world you may be.

Why? Well, for starters home is the place you associate with relaxation & time out. Home is where you sleep, socialise, spend time with your loved ones. Home doesn’t have a boss checking in with you, a team to motivate, home doesn’t have clients dropping by unexpectedly, home has TV & music, and every other possible option you can think of to procrastinate to your hearts content.

So what is the recipe for working from home successfully and productively?

Let’s start with three main ingredients – Motivation, Focus, and Discipline.

As a natural procrastinator, it’s taken me a while to both learn this and to put it into practice, but at this stage I believe I’ve finally gotten it down to a fine art, and hope that by sharing these few hints and tips, you will too!

1)     'Please, Step Into My Office' – Create yourself a work space! This is the key to success when working remotely. There is a reason hotels popular with business travelers mostly provide a desk in the bedroom…because having an area to set up and work is imperative to switching your brain into work mode. Be it a spare room as your office, a desk, a kitchen table, or your balcony, just designate a separate space to set up and work, and ensure it’s a space you can leave behind at the end of the working day. Propping up your Surface Pro on the arm of your couch, whilst subtly training one eye on the Netflix series you are currently binge-watching sounds heavenly, but

 A) You won’t fully concentrate while you are working as all you want to do is watch TV,

and

B) When you do close down at the end of the day, and give in to watching your beloved series, I can guarantee all you will think about the email you half prepared and should have completed, which will haunt you every time the light on your computer twinkles at you from the arm of the couch. 

2)     'Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living’ – Set your hours, create a routine, and try to stick to it. Okay, admittedly, this one made me chuckle a bit even as I typed it, as anyone in our industry knows regular working hours don't exist anyway.

When you are working with multiple time zones, you are mostly in constant state of alert, you reply to Wechat messages on auto-pilot in the middle of the night, you wish people ‘Good Morning’ over the Atlantic as you turn off your computer at the end of your working day. Your Friday is someone else’s Sunday. Your Sunday is someone’s Monday. Add an (un)healthy dose of jet lag into the mix, and somehow disorientation becomes the norm.

However when working from home, particularly when under lock down conditions, to be able give your maximum effort and focus there has be a starting point, and a finishing line. Try your best to stick as closely to your normal working hours as possible, take a lunch break etc. It's vital to keep your routine in place.

3)     ‘In Union There Is Strength’ - Keep in touch with your team. Most of the worlds population spend around one third of their adult life at work, so it is probably less than surprising that when working in a close-knit team your immediate team members, can begin to feel like family. Working together as a team & supporting each other is crucial to the success of a business. Successful, strong relationships take a long time to build, and must be nurtured and maintained. Being forced into a self-isolation period, and no longer having the ease and convenience of meeting with your team daily, can create a real hitch in communication efforts, and lack of communication can have a much wider impact on overall operations. Not only that, but working alone can be demotivating, being able to bounce ideas around with your team creates more momentum, and productivity overall.

Check in with your colleagues daily, continue with weekly meetings, take advantage of all the technology we have at our fingertips – Group Chats, Video conference calls, Team Apps, there are so many options out there to keep you as connected as easily and often as when you cross paths in the hallway of the office…and once all of this is over, and normality has resumed, you can continue with these methods to touch base with your team from overseas. Two birds, One stone.

4)     ‘Actually DO your ‘to do’ list’ – A change of environment/routine can really mess with your organisation and focus, particularly when you are surrounded by home comforts. For this reason, it’s essential that you pre-plan each week, what tasks you need to complete, what is urgent, when you will do them etc. If you think it will be difficult to discipline yourself to complete them each day (The phrase Ma?ana, Ma?ana comes to mind) then perhaps share your task list with a colleague, your manager, and arrange to send daily reports of what was achieved that day. Once you have committed to completing your tasks, focus will follow.

5)     ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ – Do you normally spend most of your time on the road, meeting clients and associates face to face, and now you can’t? You probably feel you’re your role is a little redundant. Being in Lockdown/Self-Isolation can certainly induce anxiety, worry and feel like a generally negative experience, but it doesn’t need to be this way. Turn a negative into a positive. Do you always work in the most effective way possible? Yes? Are you sure about that? If you lead a busy lifestyle, and spend most of your time on the road, then there’s a hefty chance that you spend at least a percentage of your time firefighting, and using ‘make do and mend’ methods in order to get things done quickly (at the peril of creating duplication, rework later)

Sound familiar? Sure it does, and it’s time to put the ‘water hose’ down. Use this time wisely, to re-evaluate your structure, working methods and materials, and redesign as needed to be in the strongest position possible once normality resumes. Take time to review old non-urgent tasks, stored away on old lists of changes you would like to make “if only you had the time”…well, now you do.

6)     ‘The lights are on, but nobody’s home’ – Chances are, not only are you in some form of lock down, but so are the majority of your family and friends, which means they will be chomping at the bit to pass by for coffee or face time to chat. It can feel strange to decline their request to begin with, but ask yourself this: If you were in the office today, would you take that call? No. So be kind but firm, and set in your own mind that you are at work and tell your loved ones that you will be available after a certain time. Stay focused, or that list will never clear.

And don’t worry, they will still love you. It’s a known fact, everybody wants what they can’t have.

7)     ‘Get Up, Get Dressed, Get Moving’ – Saving one of the most important until last. To act the part, you have to look the part. Get up at the usual time, if possible try to do some form a workout through the day – the web has a fantastic range of online classes you can do from the comfort of your living room, you can even hire an online personal trainer to coax you into shape. If you feel physically strong, your mental game will follow.

Get active and get dressed for the day like you mean business (literally) Now don’t get me wrong, nobody expects you to get kitted out in your finest formal wear only to sit at home all day, but at the very least put on some “proper” clothes.

Modern technology is a bit of a double-edged sword, as the fact that anyone can video call you at any time, also means that you should always expect the unexpected. And let’s be completely honest here, do you really want to have that crucial 'deal or no deal' Zoom call with your HNWI, whilst wearing a pair of bright pink fleecy pyjama trousers?

I won’t answer that.

I do hope my hint and tips bring you some use, and most of all I hope my perspective might have helped you to see the light in what can feel like a rather dark and dingy tunnel, of late.

In this current climate the most important thing is that you and your loved ones are in good health. The fact that you still have employment, which is flexible and allows you to work remotely, is an additional and extremely fortunate advantage.

And let's face it, adulthood can be intense and sometime downright tough. How many times have you been so exhausted, both physically and mentally, under immense amounts of pressure, juggling the strains of career and general life commitments….and for a split second you wish, just for a little while, you could stop, recharge and refresh?

(For my fellow Brits out there, let’s compare this to when we were younger and used to watch that Childrens TV show ‘Bernard’s Watch’ THIS is your Bernard's Watch moment)

Now is your time to reflect and recharge, make the most of it.