How to maintain a routine – while traveling

Routines break as soon as you leave your usual surroundings. Let's change that.

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In my last job as Head of International, I traveled a lot. In fact, so much that this meme became universally accepted as my company-internal name:

Every two weeks, I’d travel for a few days, excluding weekends (which would also entail travel). Throw in a long-distance relationship, and you have the perfect storm.

One of my biggest struggles was maintaining my routines – the small things you do every day that keep everything going.

Isn’t traveling and having a routine an oxymoron?

For most, it should be: travel is a means of breaking the routine. Do something that you normally wouldn’t do.

But when travel is integrated so deeply into your life, and having a routine at home is the exception rather than the rule (as you’re never there), you need to find a way.

Here’s how I did it:

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[1] Prepare to maintain your routines

The best trip starts a few days before the trip. Already think about how you’ll maintain your routines before you get onto the plane.

Just saying “I’ll eat healthily and work out during my trip” without a plan is like making a new year’s resolution – it simply doesn’t work.

Routines for me largely revolved around mental & physical health.

A few guidelines I’d use:

→ Pay extra for a hotel that has a gym and/or serves a healthy breakfast

→ If you’re staying more than 2 nights, get an AirBNB so you can cook for yourself

→ Find a gym in the area that offers day passes

→ Schedule workouts, me-time, anything else you want to do in advance

Scheduling stuff in advance is especially important – if you don’t make a plan to do something, then you simply won’t do it.

By checking these 4 boxes, you already know when and where to train, and ensure that your nutrition isn’t completely screwed over.

Some people also bring their healthy food with them; I think that goes too far. You’re traveling to a civilized place, there are humans there too who want to eat healthily (unless you’re going to the US or something 😄).

On the work front, make sure that there isn’t any high-urgency leftover work that you have to deal with during your trip. Nothing derails a trip like a missed deadline. So put in the extra hour or two before you leave in order to ensure smooth sailing once you’re on the road. This includes stuff like getting to Inbox Zero.

[2] Control the Controllables

On a business trip, you likely don’t control the majority of your day.

But you do control how you start and end it.

To start:

• Maintain your usual morning routine (eg. I’d go on a quick walk around the block and drink a big glass of water right after waking)
• Eat a healthy meal in the morning (for me, that’s 4 eggs + some vegetables)
• Get some movement in

To end:

• Stretch & mobilize for a few minutes
• Write down what happened during the day in your journal (while traveling, mental load is higher – so dumping what’s on your mind does wonders for your sleep)
• Read some fiction

No matter what happens, you can always do these things.

I also like to wake up at the same time every day, regardless of when I went to bed. This helps maintaining routine, even if it means you’re running on fumes (and 2 liters of coffee) for the day.

[3] Do the bare minimum

Having the expectation that you can simply do everything that you normally do at home is unrealistic. You’re traveling, the environment is different, there’s no way in hell you’ll maintain what you do at home on the road.

Be okay with doing the bare minimum. For example:

• Training: before you don’t train at all, do a “bare minimum workout”. For me, that’s: 50 push-ups, 50 leg raises, 50 alternating lunges; if you wanna do cardio, just do 100 burpees. Both take < 10mins.
• Nutrition: don’t aim to hit a healthy meal every meal; just never miss twice in a row. If you nail your breakfast, and maybe throw in a decent meal for lunch, go have that burger + milkshake + 7 beers at night. Not ideal, but f**k it – you’re traveling.
• Work: usually want to reply to emails within 2 hours? Simply don’t. Put in an autoresponder stating that you’re traveling, and reply when you have a minute. Skip a few recurring meetings. You’re traveling. Others will understand. (And if they don’t … well, f**k ‘em, most recurring meetings are rather pointless anyway).

The point of habits isn’t to be perfect, but to be consistent. It’s better to do the bare minimum every day, than to miss a few days in a row and then binge the positive habit.

Life’s not perfect, and neither are you or me.

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Question for you:

Now, I’m genuinely curious: what do you do while traveling in order to maintain routines? As much as you might be learning from me, I wanna learn from you.

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If you’re traveling this week: hell yeah – go maintain those routines.

If you don’t: hell yeah – enjoy a productive week at home.

Either way, happy Monday!

LFG. 🔥

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