It’s your first business trip abroad? Congratulations! Travelling for leisure is flexible because the time is all yours, but for a work trip, you’ve got a schedule to meet. From presentations to meeting colleagues, there’s so much to do, and so much more to make sure of.
Business trips are not like travel holidays but you can still make it comfortable and enjoyable. Here are some hacks you can take along with you!
1) Pack Smart and Light
Business travellers almost always don’t check in their bags. We carry-on everything so we save time in waiting for our bags to arrive. But if you have to check in your baggage, make sure to carry all work essentials and a set of work clothes on board the plane. To maximise the space, opt for compact and light items. Pack a lighter laptop, compact wireless headphones like the WH-1000XM5 and travel-sized toiletries in those bags.
2) Stay Productive during flight
In-flight is the perfect space to work on finishing up any work you have to catch up on or even the last few slides of presentation. Make it even better by using a pair of noise cancelling headphones like the WH-1000XM5 to tune out the engine hum and noises from passengers while listening to your favourite music. And if you need a rest, you can do so comfortably (even when wearing glasses). The padding of the Sony WH-1000XM5 is deep and wide enough to accommodate larger ears and is made out of soft vegan leatherette.
The WH-1000XM5 can also connect directly to the in-flight entertainment so you don’t have to use uncomfortable headphones provided by the airline. When paired with the noise cancelling function driven by the Multi Noise Sensor technology , you get to be fully immersed in the shows you are watching.
3) Cloud storage (or external hard-disk) is best for travel
Back up your work on Dropbox or Google Drive if you can access wifi, or back it up on an external hard disk so you always have a copy just in case the laptop gets damage or stolen during commute. You would not want to go into an important meeting with nothing to present.
You can also store photos of travel receipts in cloud for expense claims when you get back.
4) Optimize work hours to fit your home and new time zone.
Your work schedule becomes more complicated once you have to work both in your new time zone and your old time zone. One hack is to determine the best overlapping business hours and to take time to plan your daily schedule in advance. You can also choose to optimize your work activities for your own circadian rhythm. Find overlapping time periods where you may be still working in your home time zone and try to schedule work during those periods. That way you can still remain alert and fresh.
With the overlapping time zones, you may have to take conference calls in the middle of a lunch break or while taking the train. But with Sony’s WH-1000XM5 Precise Voice Pick-up Technology and multiple beam forming microphones, the headphones isolates your voice precisely for clear call quality. You don’t have to worry about having important calls on the go even when there’s a lot of noise around.
5) Meal time? Try the local cuisines
It is said that the best way to know a place is through their food. Food always connects. Be it supermarket food, roadside stores or even the cafes, try their food. Every country seems to make the same thing differently.
(You can even keep your headphones on when ordering food, with the Speak-to-chat Function)
6) Work is done, time to have fun!
If you can, we recommend extending a day or two to explore the city or place you are in. Take photos with a professional compact camera like the RX100IV or record casual memories with the ZV-1! You can also take the time to share the beautiful scenery with your colleagues back home and get them some gifts. Talk about a thoughtful co-worker or boss! Everyone at work is going to thank you for thinking of them!
