Variety is the Spice of Life when you travel

They say variety is the spice of life. Today is day 33 of what will be 35 days on the road for me, and it’s certainly had a lot of variety along the way. It all started in early September when I headed over to Salesforce’s annual customer event Dreamforce in San Francisco, my first one in probably five years. What an amazing week of reconnecting with colleagues and friends, deepening relationships and juicing up on the Ohana vibes. From there it was over to Ireland (via a Chicago stop) to visit family and friends, and check out the new Dublin office. My wife Jenny and our two boys had also flown to Dublin the opposite direction and we had 10 wholesome days driving around Ireland to spend time with those most important to us. And then (take a deep breath) it was on to a wonderful wedding in Malta, a sensational city break in Istanbul (picture above taken at the Spice Bazaar close to the infamous Grand Bazaar), a couple of sweaty days in Singapore (where I write this from), before heading back to Sydney tomorrow night.

Great great trip, but if you’re thinking that’s a lot then I hear you! So how did I manage to make it all work without it going off the rails and/or losing our minds?

Blending and balancing

Luckily I was able to intersperse work into the agenda, with meetings in San Francisco, Dublin and Singapore. Add to this a few video calls along the way to take advantage of time zones, and I was able to move some of those big rocks along effectively. An office in the morning, a museum with the kids in the afternoon. A video call from an AirBnB in West Cork. I found blending like this keeps me in the picture (and reduces my FOMO anxiety!), especially when it’s a long trip and I’m constantly moving.

Expect to get sick, schedule rest

Inevitably, with all the flights, huge in-person events (with much hugging happening following 3-year covid-induced travel hiatus), and crazy jet lag across many timezone changes, plus a few late nights(!), I was gonna get all the germs, so I found myself sick by the time I got to Dublin. Anyone who’s travelled with me knows I carry a pharmacy with me. I had all the vitamins, flu remedies and prescription meds anyone could need in such situations. I also gave myself the grace to schedule downtime and focus on sleep, got exercise and had the benefit of my mammy’s home cooking, yum. All coughs and snivels were gone in a week, and yes I amazingly tested negative several times. A good old fashioned cold.?

Pack light, launder frequently

You name the weather, I pretty much got it all! San Francisco warm days and cold nights, wild wind and rain in the west of Ireland, dusty sunshine in Malta, humid heat in Singapore - I had to pack a few things for all climates. How do you make that last 5 weeks? Get comfortable doing laundry anywhere with a washing machine - hotel service, AirBnB washing machines and best of all, the aforementioned mammy’s laundry service.

Delegate planning

Lucky for me, my wife seems to enjoy travel planning - frequent flyer points flights, loyalty hotel reward nights, car hire bargains with our own excess insurance, restaurants Anthony Bourdain would frequent, walking tours that help me smash my Apple Watch steps goals. I’m not one to interfere, which gives me the bandwidth to blend and balance as mentioned above. Even in San Francisco without the family, I made sure to rely on colleagues for the best oyster bars and North Beach pizza joints to hit. Go with the flow and surf the wave.

Get good at doing everything from your phone

With enough practice and determination, you can do almost everything from your phone - slack/email, calendar, expense submissions, travel bookings, boarding passes, multi-currency accounts and FX, ride share apps across 5 countries, keeping an eye on your security cameras at home, and setting the robot vacuum off on its merry circuit around the house. Of course I’m writing and editing this using googledocs my phone, and will post it along with the spices picture above on LinkedIn (but via a browser and some trickery, can’t post articles via the mobile app yet). Just keep an eye on that battery level as you go!

So just some guiding principles that worked for me, spending all this time on the road, circumnavigating the world. But as they say, there’s no place like home. See you soon Sydney.