How to Stay Productive When Flying
Are you planning to take one or more commercial flights this year? Well, you aren’t alone. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), air traffic controllers handle more than 23,000 flights per day! But while flying can be a huge time saver compared to driving, it can also sap your productivity.
If there’s one item that you don’t want to leave home without, it’s a power strip. When you are sitting at the airport terminal waiting on your flight, you can use a power strip to power multiple devices simultaneously. And if someone happens to be using the only power outlet — an all-too-common occurrence when flying — you can usually convince them to share the outlet with a power strip.
Jim Koch, cofounder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, recommends taking the earliest flight possible. The successful entrepreneur and businessman says there’s less traffic during the early, pre-dawn hours, which means you can navigate through the airport with greater ease.
“There is less traffic, the airport is less crowded, flights are generally more reliable and it usually means I get to spend the night before at home with my family and spend more time in my destination city,” said Koch.
Of course, this makes sense, but taking the earliest flight isn’t always an option. Thankfully, there are other ways to make your flights more productive.
The ability to read emails and browse the web is a huge plus when you’re 35,000 feet above sea level. However, you shouldn’t rely on airplane WiFi for your regular work. As noted by the folks at Entrepreneur, airplane WiFi is “notoriously spotty.” You may have a strong signal with decent download speeds in one area, only for it to go completely out just a couple minutes later. Or even if your plane is equipped with WiFi, sometimes it’s on the fritz completely. If you plan on reading email, download it first to make it available offline, or if online articles, save them as documents to your hard drive so you can access them offline.
Nearly all of the major U.S. airlines now offer some type of entertainment for travelers. The allure of kicking back and watching a movie may sound enticing, but those two plus hours could be better spent working. Instead of watching a movie or catching some extra sleep, pull out your laptop and start working. The more work you get accomplished during the flight, the less work you’ll have to do once you land.
Even if you have access to a power outlet, it’s still recommended that you charge your devices before leaving for the airport. Whether it’s your smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc., you want to keep them fully charged if possible. In the event that you are stuck in a layover, you can continue working without interruption.
Have any other productivity tips that you would like to share with our readers? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nchausse/