Reduce Stress With a Travel Checklist for Your Business

Let’s face it, the most stressful part of any trip is the preparation. Your mind races with all the things you need to do. What saves me is the trip checklist I have created for my business. When I schedule the trip, I open the ‘vacation’ document I have stored in my computer files, and scan down the list; then I cut and paste what I need to do before the trip into an event I create on my calendar. I also create an event for the day I return to the office, reminding me of the things I need to undo (like turn off the vacation message on my email).

Here are some examples of what is on my list:

  1. Make sure bills are paid.
  2. Vacation message on email.
  3. Print boarding passes (some airlines now can scan from your phone – although it varies by airport – I can tell you from experience that Fargo, ND airport does not have this capability)
  4. Call credit card company to tell them traveling so charges not denied.
  5. A few days/week before my departure, I send an email to my clients so they don’t try to email me in a panic and get an “out of the office” reply. I encourage them to contact me immediately if they have any questions or projects that need attention. When I first started doing this, I was surprised that this frequently results in additional income, I assume because of the scarcity factor; when clients realize you won’t be available, suddenly they decide they can’t wait to get moving on projects.

And for packing, here’s a cool app to check out: Stow

A great packing list makes preparing for your next trip easy, but making those lists has always been a pesky, time-consuming chore. Sure, you can create & save a packing list as a Word doc, but Stow makes packing lists simple by allowing you to quickly create and customize a list from a template. You can even create your own templates for trips you take regularly.

Stow also works great if you have a lot to take with you for your day.  You can even save your morning routine as a template to speed the process.

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