Too many people assume that when they travel they’re off the grid and don’t need to communicate like they do at the office. If you’re traveling for a vacation, that’s understandable and I encourage you to indeed turn off your devices and enjoy the trip. But if you’re traveling for business or other reasons, there’s no reason you can’t keep the flow of communication moving like normal and manage tech while traveling.
I average flying about 200,000 miles a year and sometimes go for months traveling once a week. During that process, I’ve learned a few things about using tech while traveling that can really make a difference communicating to family, co-workers, clients, bosses, and others:
How to Juggle Communication Tech While Traveling
1) Be careful about using email auto-responders that tell people you’re traveling and who to contact for immediate assistance. If you’re a full time employee it’s probably fine. But I never use them because I want my clients to feel that I’m there when they need me. I also find that email auto-responders are a bit dismissive (after all, nobody wants to be shuffled to an assistant or another department).
2) One reason I can avoid email auto-responders even though we’re a client based business, is because I purchase WIFI access on my airline. Delta and others are moving to provide it for free, but as I’m writing this others have not followed. While there’s no need to be online every minute of your flight, it’s always good to check in. Plus, whenever I’m traveling, something important inevitably pops up the minute the flight attendant shuts the door to the plane. Buy headphones if it helps with distractions, but I can burn through hundreds of emails, todo list items, or blog posts during a typical flight, just because I’m connected.
