Travel might be minimal for entrepreneurs who operate only in a very small geographical area. Certain real estate developers or those who provide onsite physical services might go home tired after a hard day’s work but still sleep in their own beds the majority of the time. Other entrepreneurs operating nationwide or even worldwide aren’t so lucky, and frequent travel can take a toll on a person’s health. If it seems like you’re constantly on flights, attending high-energy events, and interacting with hundreds of people, it’s important to take care of your health while traveling.
You might be able to tolerate it for years, but neglecting your health while traveling can eventually contribute to burnout, a less robust immune system, and lowered business performance. Here are three things to keep in mind when you’re in hustle mode and feeling taxed by the hardships of travel.
1. Offset Jet Lag
Very few people look forward to daylight savings time beginning or ending. Twice a year, our sleep patterns get messed up, sometimes taking several days to recover. When you frequently travel back and forth between different time zones, jet lag can take a toll on you. It’s like being hit with daylight savings over and over.
If you’re traveling for business, generally, you don’t have a day or two to recover before you start your activities. Thankfully, there are things you can do to minimize the effects of jet lag.
One proactive way to minimize jet lag is to travel with a jet lag supplement kit. These kits can include supplements to improve sleep and energy. Some also come with blue-light-blocking sunglasses and informational apps to walk you through techniques you can use throughout the day.
You should also make sure to fly with essential items such as neck pillows so you are more likely to get some sleep on the plane. Planning ahead on how best to acclimate your circadian rhythm to your destination time zone can make the transition much easier on your body.
2. Block Off Downtime
Usually, your itinerary is packed if you’re traveling heavily for business. From touchdown to takeoff, it’s easy to rush from place to place and never give yourself a minute to decompress. While scheduling small blocks of downtime might seem like a more efficient use of your time to get in, get it done, and get out, it can hugely benefit your health while traveling.
When you’re rushing and bouncing from place to place, it’s easy to forget important items. For example, leaving a crucial display item in your hotel room when you need it at a trade show can cause stress. You then need to decide whether to continue with a less impressive display or burn valuable time returning to your hotel room.
If you catch a flight that’s an hour or so early, you can schedule some downtime in your hotel room before events. That can allow you to get your head on right and perform better at your events and appointments. Also, try to avoid scheduling appointments back to back while traveling. Giving yourself small breaks in between can allow you to digest what was just discussed and go into the next appointment calmly and collected.
Those breaks can greatly impact keeping your stress levels as low as possible. Operating under constant rushing and stress over time can throw your impact receptors out of whack. Protecting yourself from that possibility is important if you want to avoid burnout.
3. Prioritize Exercise Snacks
Most of the time, business travel involves a lot of prolonged sitting. You might be sitting in a car to get to the airport. Then, you’ll sit at the airport while waiting for your flight or grabbing a meal. Then it’ll be sitting on the plane, in hotel rooms, or while you’re at a high-value event listening to a speaker.
Sneaking away to the gym for a high-intensity workout during business travel is oftentimes inconvenient or impractical. That’s where exercise snacks come in. They’re short little bursts of activity that don’t require a change of clothes but provide vital movement breaks. Identifying long stretches of sitting times that can be used for exercise snacks can help keep your energy up.
Obviously, it’s not an option to pound out some jumping jacks while you’re driving or sitting in the audience during a speaking event. But what if you have some downtime in your hotel room or have 30 minutes to burn before a connecting flight? Doing a few sets of lunges, squats, or even tricep dips using a chair can increase your energy and increase your heart rate in minutes. And don’t worry about looking foolish at the airport. Unless you start doing a series of backflips down the terminal, you will unlikely be the strangest thing people witness at the airport.
Don’t Sacrifice Long Term Success For Short Term Gain
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get sucked into habits that may or may not improve your bottom line but almost certainly damage long-term health. Prioritizing your health while traveling doesn’t have to limit your work performance, and it’s something worth taking seriously.
Photo by Jenny Hill; Unsplash
