Bryan Buckley

As a high performer, you’re always trying to make your life better.

AmIright??

Whether it means increasing sales, creating efficiencies, or being more present for your kiddos, pushing yourself to the next level is exciting.

However, it also comes with risk.

The risk of setting expectations too high and then not achieving them. Which makes you feel low and unmotivated and worst of all, inadequate.

You might berate yourself over why you can’t achieve what you set out to do.

Or feel like a failure when your intentions don’t go your way.

I hate that.

We put ourselves in situations that are not achievable even by the smartest and most driven person and then blame ourselves when things don’t go as planned.

Let’s put an end to this self-sabotaging experience of inadequacy, shall we?

There’s one simple tool I always use with my clients to set realistic expectations, take control of their time, and end each day feeling successful (instead of like a failure).

It’s Time Blocking.

Time blocking is just as it sounds – blocking out your time every day.

Time blocking is about assessing what you need to get done, how much time you have, and where you’ll fit it into your schedule.

Let me show you how time blocking can be the difference between feeling like a failure and feeling accomplished.

My to-do list has over 50 tasks on it. In my head, when I DON’T block my time, I think I’ll get to at half of them by the end of the day.

When I don’t get close to completing even half those tasks (or only do the easy ones so I feel busy), I feel like a failure.

That’s because no matter how much I actually accomplish I focus on what I DIDN’T get done.

On the other hand, here’s what my day looks like when I DO block my time:

• Drive to the airport and check in 8:00 – 9:30
• Call Rhonda to negotiate terms 9:45 – 10:15
• Create draft for Sims proposal 10:30 – 12:00 (on the flight)
• Attend meeting 1:30- 3:00
• Edit and finalize RFP 3:00 – 4:00
• Respond to emails 4:00 – 5:30
• Talk to kids 6:00 – 6:30
• Walk 7:30 – 8:30

Yup, 8 tasks. Just 8. Not a dozen, not two dozen. But eight.

With time blocked out on my schedule I can see exactly how much I can realistically fit in, including work, family, and health.

I don’t end up with a list of 20 other tasks I didn’t get done. Which means even if I get to six of the eight tasks on my time blocked schedule, I still feel like a winner.

A lot more inspiring and motivating than six out of twenty on my non-time blocked list.

When you rely on planning your day in your head, you underestimate how much time you have and overestimate how much you can get done.

Thoughts get jumbled and time frames get confused. You have got to get it down on your calendar (or paper) where you can see it throughout the day.

Important Tip: Do not underestimate the value of taking five minutes every night to go through the exercise of blocking your time on your calendar for the next day. Time blocking forces you to take a look at your meetings and appointments and scheduling what is truly most important around them.

It forces you to prioritize BEFORE you begin your day, which arms you to be proactive vs. reactive throughout the day.

It allows you to make educated and rational decisions about what future commitments you should say yes to and what requests you should say no to.

For example, if a friend or colleague asks to “pick your brain,” or “grab a bite,” before immediately responding “Yes!” you take a glance at your day’s schedule and let them know that right now isn’t a great time, but after 2 pm you are wide open.

If you regularly find yourself feeling like you’re not achieving what you set out to do, please embrace this simple yet powerful strategy.

Time blocking truly is the magic pill for setting realistic expectations and improving your results. I dare you to try it!

Here’s to getting more of the right things done.

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Mridu Parikh is a writer and speaker on the Elite Road Warrior Team. She helps ambitious professionals feel in control of their time, energy, and habits, even when they’re overwhelmed by demands and distractions. As a productivity coach, speaker, and best-selling author she will teach you how to focus, overcome procrastination, and squash anxiety.

ERW endorses her book, Accomplish It.

Listen to an interview with Mridu on the Elite Road Warrior Podcast Episode 022.

Get Mridu’s FREE resource, 21 Killer Hacks To Stop Feeling Overwhelmed, on her website, Life Is Organized.

Did you know the average business traveler spends between 48-74 nights away from home?  

For someone that doesn’t travel or travels very little, they seemed surprised, even shocked by this number.

Those that travel in this range, completely agree. And those of us who travel that amount by Memorial Day, know what it’s like to try and live in a home away from home.

Most do it very poorly and just survive. Or as I often say, “getting by, not getting better”. But does it have to be that way? Just getting by on the road?

I remember before I started traveling for a living, how much I looked forward to staying in a hotel. The criteria and expectations were so different back in those simple, naive days.

When I travel with my family and the kids, often times it’s as simple as throw the stuff down, grab the swimsuits, and head to the pool.

But now it’s a whole different ball game with business travel especially traveling the amount I’ve done year after year now.

Here’s the reality:

A hotel room can make or break a trip especially that first night.  My normal routine before I became focused, okay obsessed with maximizing my energy on the road, was one of the following after I opened my hotel room door:

1. Chuck my carry-on wherever to deal with whenever, turn on the tv, and crash by relaxing on the bed
2. Kind of unpack and leave the room immediately for bigger and better things (never found out what exactly was bigger and better other than my gut and my next big meal or drink)

But I realized these two approaches always back-fired on me. I eventually came back to my “home away from home” and being negligent to set up this temporary home environment always had negative consequences:

• My room was a blast furnace
• My clothes were a wrinkled mess
• I couldn’t find anything in my carry on because it was late and dark and I was impatient and 
• I felt organized and frustrated

It came down to a lack of preparation on my part to set up my home away from home to work best for me. After all, I was on the road to perform at a high level (energy habit four) and produce results.

I was viewing my hotel room as a place to CRASH not a place of ENERGY.

And the irony is it would only take a simple plan and a few minutes of my time to solve this disorganization and frustration.

I wanted and needed my hotel room to create energy not consume energy for me and a few seemingly simple tweaks could actually give me a quick boost of energy.

This is what I came up with and I now live by the acronym HOME.

Ironically enough, since it’s one night or a week, the reality is it’s my home while I’m away from “real home.” Before we get into “the details” on how to make the most of your hotel room we have to discuss how do I make sure this is going to happen.

The Trigger.

I had to have a trigger so I can change my old habits of chucking my carry-on wherever and crashing on the bed.

The trigger is the key opens my door. Once that happens, I roll in my carry-on, grab the stand, and open up my suitcase.

Why?

Because I need this motion as an immediate trigger to the reality this is my new home.

For now.

The old way was just walk in, chuck the carry on and just move on not move in.

This trigger was my catalyst for this new change of behavior. So, how do you take immediate control of your home away from home?

Now, I don’t know the quality of your hotel, if you’re staying one night or one week. But this information applies no matter your situation.

And it all starts with The Trigger I referenced earlier.

Once my key opens my hotel room after check-in, I go through a four-step process found in an acronym: HOME

How to Immediately Take Control of Your Home Away From Home on Business Travel

1. Home

H – Hang up and unpack 

Okay, my hotel room is open and I have a choice what to do next.

The easy thing is to chuck the carry-on in the corner, grab the remote, and jump on the bed.

Or maybe the only thing you get out is your laptop to start cranking out some work.

I want to challenge you to begin the HOME away from HOME by starting with the “H” – hang up and unpack.

The very 1st thing I do is find the luggage holder, find the ideal spot in the room and immediately hang up my dress clothes. I always have nice clothes that need to be hung up so here’s my chance. I then unpack my entire carry-on. Huh?

Why? It’s simple and psychological: I don’t want to feel like I’m living out of a suitcase. And the reality is it only takes a couple of minutes. I’ve done it so many times, I can knock it out quickly.

I have my non-hanging clothes in packing cubes so they’re easy to pull out of my carry-on, open up a drawer, and either unload the contents or if the drawer is larger enough, I simply set the packing cube in the drawer wide open for easy access.

Lastly, I take my toiletry bag into the bathroom and unpack them. All of them. I HATE scrounging through that small bag what seems like hours to find “that one thing” I need. I take a washcloth or small towel and set everything out. (I’m a little OCD in this way so you don’t have to take it as far as I do – I was going to include a picture but didn’t want to freak you out).

I can literally do this H Step in under 2 minutes.

2. hOme

O – Optimize the space

After H of “Hang Up and Unpack”, next, I begin to tailor the room to fit me. It is MY room until I leave.

Now, I’m not moving walls or taking down pictures but I am making tweaks that make me feel more comfortable.

The 1st thing I do is remove the clutter. I don’t need or even want all the magazines, advertisements, etc. laying all around the room. In one swoop, I grab anything out and put it in a drawer. 

The next thing I do is adjust the furniture. I know, crazy, right? I’m not moving the bed or redecorating but often I’m making two potential moves:

The Desk – if I’m going to be spending any amount of time in a workspace, I want to tweak it to fit me and this usually means changing the location to face a window if I can move it. I also see if there’s a way I can adjust the height to make it more of a stand-up desk. A personal thing with me.

The Chair – I’m a voracious reader (Energy Habit Four – Develop) so if I can put the chair in a more optimal location, again, by a window, all the better. I start my morning reading so I like to have the location all set and ready for me. 

Optimizing the space is a “feel thing”. If it’s a value to you, you know that about you and just need to act on it. You’ll be surprised what this can do for you.

If you’re not sure, just try it. I had never thought of it until a fellow business traveler on a plane told me about this idea. Now, it’s part of my routine.

How can you maximize the room layout to create energy for you?

This O Step takes me only 2 or 3 minutes.

So, H is Hang up and Unpack / O is Optimize Your Space and now…

3. hoMe

M – Manage the room temperature and scent 

Ah, the temperature. It’s never right. I’ve lost track how many times I walked into the hotel room and began to sweat. Not cool. Literally. I sweat enough in air conditioning, I don’t need any help in a warm room!

My HOME routine means I MUST change the temperature of the room to what is comfortable to me. Not my wife or my kids (sold separately on business travel) so it’s what I like and prefer. 

Often, I set it for my ideal sleeping temperature which is usually around 66 degrees. I know, one cool cat.

Another tweak I do with the room temperature has more to do with the room scent.

Here’s my Scent Hack: I bring cotton balls and put a few drops of essential oils to change the scent of the room. This is great when you come back into the room and have a comforting scent that is calming and familiar.

Did you catch that? Calming and most importantly, familiar. I love the scent of eucalyptus so this gets dripped on to the cotton ball and then put into the vent in the wall. Wha la. At night I’ll often change the essential oil to lavender to help me sleep (which I also put some on my body). Don’t knock it until you try it. 

Think about your ideal room temperature and scent. Chances are you’re put little to no thought into this question especially when you enter the room and part of your routine.  

This takes me a “cool and stinkin'” 1 minute.

H – hang up and unpack / O – optimize the space / M – manage the temperature/scent

4. homE

E – Exercise

Are you serious Clark? (name the movie: Christmas Vacation)

After I complete the 1st three parts of the H.O.M.E. acronym, it’s time to move the body especially on a travel day and quite possibly a busy day depending on what time I make it to the hotel.

Depending on how much time I have, this will determine whether I’m going to do something in my room or head down to the hotel fitness center or local gym.

And I always have a plan.

If I have a short amount of time, I can drop to the floor and do a few minutes of an ab workout or pushups or burpees that include pushups and work my abs.

If I’ve had little activity, I may do just 10 minutes of a High-Intensity Interval Workout (HIIT). You’d be surprised how much you can get your heart rate up and how much better you’ll feel in just 10 minutes.

Many times I want to find the hotel fitness center and just do some dumbbell workout. If I have more time, I may want to visit a local gym to workout and leverage the sauna or steam room or plunge pool.

But you need to have a plan.

Once I open that hotel room door, I need to know how much time I have, what I feel like doing, and what I’m going to do.

Don’t believe the lie that you don’t have enough time for a hit of exercise. If you’ve read my book, I say often:

Something, anything is better than nothing.

This exercise approach of something, anything is better than nothing, is my BIGGEST boost of energy for wherever my evening will lead me.

This takes me anywhere between 5-30 minutes. And worth literally every minute.

My Suggestion 

Start with one of the four above that would make the biggest impact on your energy if you were to implement it. 

For example, the 1st one for me was simply changing the room temperature. Sounds silly but I HATED coming back to a warm room after a long day and it felt like forever for it to cool down especially if I had to be out late that day.

Next for me was hanging up my clothes and fully unpacking. It was more of a mental thing at first but led to not consuming needless energy looking for things and feeling like a visitor in my own room. 

What I enjoy the most through my stay is Optimizing the Space. Changing the room to fit my flow has made working (Perform Energy Habit) and reading/thinking (Develop Energy Habit) so much more enjoyable to me. 

Look for something that will be a simple and impactful change and you should see immediate feedback on its effectiveness. Remember, the goal is taking ownership of your hotel room to create not consume your energy. 

Let’s Land This Plane

The H.O.M.E. Method is easy to remember and easy to use chronological process but can be done in any order. It starts with the Trigger – once your room key opens the door, the H.O.M.E. acronym is activated and it’s Go Time.

H – Hang up and unpack

O – Optimize the space

M – Manage the room temperature and scent

E – Exercise – something, anything is better than nothing

It only requires a short amount of time but can have quick and tangible results. 

So, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything just not nothing to master the business travel life. Leverage that road to becoming an elite road warrior today. 

YOU GOT THIS!

If you’re interested in the audio version of this post, check out the Elite Road Warrior Podcast episode 015. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and on this site under Podcasts.