After working remotely or hybrid for the past two years, the idea of traveling for work again can be daunting. While many are excited to hit the road, others need a little more preparation to travel for work again. If you find yourself having a business trip coming up soon, here are four tips to help you ease back into traveling for work.
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Start Slow
Before working remotely or less often in your office, your whole life may have been dictated by traveling for work. If your office is reinstating their work travel policies, communicate with them if you feel like you need to ease slowly back into traveling. Try to limit your travel to once a month or even less when you’re first traveling again. Your work should understand that this is a big adjustment for many people. Your schedule and lifestyle have changed.
One of the first steps you can take is to try day trips. If some clients or associates are within a car or train ride from you, try taking those meetings in person. From there you can begin to do further distances, overnights, and eventually longer trips when needed. Instead of being thrown into the deep end of business trips every two weeks. Make sure you communicate with HR so you don’t drown in travel.
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Examine the Value of Business Travel
One of the thoughts that may be running through your head about business travel is, “Why is this necessary?”. When you can schedule virtual meetings with anyone at your company in any time zone, it may seem unnecessary to travel to meet people again.
Instead of feeling like it isn’t necessary, take a second to examine the value of traveling for business. You may have met plenty of co-workers over zoom that you’ve never seen in real life. But the minute you make that face-to-face connection, a lot can change in the workplace. People start to feel like they actually know each other. Or they are more confident in speaking with you about new and exciting projects. You can even get some deals done in person that just wouldn’t translate well on a video call.
Try to evaluate if you had a better relationship with a client when you met them in person or when it was strictly virtual. Sometimes, there is an added value to meeting people in person that business travel can help with.
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Be Flexible
One of the most difficult readjustments to travel is the toll it can take on your mind and body. Instead of getting frustrated when you are tired or overbooking yourself on the first day of a business trip, try to be more flexible.
Take more time to recover from jet lag and schedule your meetings around when you know you’ll be the most energized. People will understand the energy it takes to travel when you haven’t in a while. Allowing yourself to be flexible in your traveling can make the entire experience more pleasurable.
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Plan Ahead
When you used to travel for work a lot, you may have felt comfortable getting off a plane, renting a car from there, and going on your way. To help ease back into business travel take more time to plan. Having more of the pieces already set up for your arrival and departure will lessen the opportunity for something to go wrong. Again, flexibility is key when traveling, but the more you prepare ahead of time, the easier your business travel can be.
Some companies are preparing their employees to travel for longer periods or even move to new offices. If you have to prepare for corporate relocation you can also plan ahead to make sure you don’t do it alone. Working with Traveler’s Haven takes all of the stress out of planning travel for corporate relocation. In addition to helping you figure out the best way to move to a new place, they’ll give you plenty of housing options within your budget to choose from. Instead of trying to figure it all out when you get there, you can get the keys to your new apartment and start getting settled into life at your corporate relocation in no time.
Conclusion
While some people can’t wait to get back out there and meet new clients, it’s going to take a lot of time for most of us to feel ready for business travel. With these tips, you can best prepare yourself for any travel you have coming up. And don’t forget to enjoy the new places and faces you get to see.
