by Karlin Sloan

July 2007

Travel time doesn’t have to mean lost productivity. Here are the best ways to use your air travel time wisely.

What’s the best way to use your travel time?

I recently conducted an informal poll of my frequent flier buddies to find out their top activities while in the air. Here’s what they said:

NUMBER ONE: Practice innovation. Suggested by one of my survey respondents, this idea seemed well worth mentioning. Using one of the many interesting innovation tools available today, come to your trip with a current business challenge or opportunity and explore it for new angles. This high-impact idea can really make a difference in your work. Here’s an example: Dawn, a salesperson, took the idea of expanding existing client business on her train trip from New York to Washington, D.C. She also brought the “Creative Whack Pack,” a card deck designed to evoke creative thinking, and used it to brainstorm new ideas. By the end of the trip, Dawn claims she had a million-dollar idea—a great investment of her time.

NUMBER TWO: Take some executive think time. This means put down your reading, stop populating that PowerPoint document, and take a few moments to meditate. Take a deep breath. Take another one. Watch your thoughts as you have them, and let them drift. Don’t try to accomplish anything—just focus on being in the present.

NUMBER THREE: Prioritize and organize. Take a look at your to-do list and think about which items on it are most important. Getting away from your BlackBerry or cell phone can be liberating, and it can mean catching up on longer-term thinking. What are your top priorities? Are you working every day toward your long-term goals, or are you running in place dealing with short-term to-dos? Then, how often do you take an hour to organize your computer desktop? This was a very popular item for surveyed travelers. If you can’t check your email, at least you can sort it.

NUMBER FOUR: Concentrate on focused tasks. Some of my compatriots choose to focus on getting their deliverables done when traveling. “It’s quiet, and I can really laser-focus on what I’m doing,” said one survey respondent.

NUMBER FIVE: Listen to executive book summaries or in-flight business radio. This was suggested by a colleague who never has time to read a book, but loves being up on the latest trends in business thinking. Executive book summaries are a great way to get key concepts and find out what you might want to explore further. Often your in-flight radio will have business features as well. In the age of the iPod, you can also download audio books to listen to during your travels—a great way to stay current, as well as entertained.

NUMBER SIX: Enjoy being unconnected. My favorite survey response was this: “I can’t believe how great it is to not be able to check voicemail or email. That is the most useful aspect of my travel time, not doing that.” It has been said that great entrepreneurs and great executives are defined by what they say no to. Take advantage of your unplugged time, and remember that you can choose not to check your voicemail or email at other times, too. With that said, catching up on much-needed rest was the hands-down favorite reply to the survey. Take all the time you can to chill out, watch a DVD, forget about work, and get some sleep. It will make a difference later, when you emerge from your trip refreshed and ready to go.

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KARLIN SLOAN, M.A., is founder and president of Karlin Sloan & Co. (karlinsloan.com), based in New York City and Chicago, which provides executive coaching, team-building and leadership development. Email Karlin at editor@executivetravelmag.com.