Business travel as the CEO of a company represents a significant chunk of time, whether domestic travel to meet clients or international travel to meet with contemporaries and departments on other continents. According to one CEO who documented their year, they spent 93 hours in taxis to and from an airport alone and traveled over 140,000 miles by air. This time is ultimately time away from the desk, and away from the optimal conditions for work – so, what can you as a CEO do to ensure efficient work even while on the move?
Table of Contents
Make Use of Your PA
As a first step, your personal assistant is your most valuable resource when it comes to working efficiently during your business travel. For starters, your PA should be responsible for making any and every booking on your behalf, drawing up your travel itinerary, and creating time for you to continue your work. Additionally, your PA can field certain tasks for you while you travel – whether liaising with contacts for you or fielding administrative calls until you are free to take them again.
WiFi Connectivity is Key
One of the more crucial amenities you will need in order to complete work in transit is a robust WiFi signal. Personal data can disappear quickly, especially with high-demand work on collaborative software tools and the exchange of high-volume data. As such, WiFi connectivity should be factored into your travel plans, from availability on any transport connections to WiFi options in your chosen accommodation.
Private Travel
Traveling commercially can present serious issues when it comes to comfort and concentration – even first-class seats are not guaranteed to present you with the environment you need to work in. Private travel gives you complete control over your surroundings and enables you the time and space to carry out your work in peace. Private jet hire can be covered as a business expense, presenting no personal costs to you and representing an investment in the importance of your time.
Safety and Security
While not directly connected to your efficiency in your work, keeping yourself and your traveling partners safe while you move from A to B can have an implicit effect on your productivity. It may be that you are traveling with family in tow; knowing that you and your family are safe and protected from any potential dangers can be a relief, enabling you to focus fully on the tasks at hand. Safety may be in the form of private security detail, or simply in optional extras included as part of your travel deal.
Focusing on Administration
Whichever way you choose to travel, the act of travel itself is an act of upheaval; travel conditions are not optimal conditions for carrying out work, and attempting to complete in-depth or complex tasks can prove detrimental to your work as opposed to efficient. Instead of potentially wasting time on a task, consider using your travel time to carry out less taxing administrative work, such as reviewing spreadsheets or answering emails, and decluttering your inbox. This administrative work will have the effect of freeing up time elsewhere in your working day, enabling you to focus on tougher tasks more fully at another time.
