New Year’s resolutions for business travellers

Here are some ideas for resolutions from and for business travelers in 2016.

MAKE TIME FOR FUN

Kat Cohen, a university admissions counselor and founder of IvyWise, hopes to build in “time to experience one event that is for pleasure on each business trip,” even if it’s “just a meal or one museum.”

Cheryl Andrews, president of Cheryl Andrews Marketing Communications, also hopes to “work at least one event of culture or beauty” into every trip. She started in early on her resolution this past fall, flying in to London ahead of a November business trip to tour the Victoria & Albert Museum and attend a classical concert.

Leon Rbibo, who frequently travels to Tahiti, Japan and Hong Kong for his Los Angeles-based jewelry company, The Pearl Source, says one of his resolutions for 2016 is to “extend my arrival and departure by one day each, landing a day early and staying a day later” in order to “take the time to enjoy some of the places I visit.”

KEEP CALM AND STAY FIT

Jamie Sigler, founding partner of J Public Relations, based in San Diego, plans to “leave time to listen to a daily meditation to keep calm and carry on when I am traveling for work. Two apps I’m loving are buddhify and Smiling Mind.”

Sigler’s colleague at J Public Relations, Ali Lundberg, pledges to pack her running shoes so she can explore “urban trails in 2016.”

“With not a lot of time to explore a destination during business travel, and the desire to get my morning fitness routine checked off the list, combining the two is at the top of my resolutions list,” Lundberg said.

PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE

David Grubb, president of CMIT Solutions of Tribeca, an information technology solutions and services company, is encouraging clients to improve their cybersecurity in the new year so that they’re as safe online on the road as they are at home.

Grubb recommends backing up all data, updating passwords, avoiding public Wi-Fi (including free airport networks) because the networks are not secure, and using two-step authentications for all financial or purchasing transactions. Grubb describes two-factor authentications as “something you know,” like a password, plus “something you have,” like a one-time code received via text or cellphone, or a fingerprint scan.

SHAKE UP YOUR DINNER PLANS, CUT OUT THE SNACKS

Jared Blank, chief marketing officer of Deal News, a shopping comparison site based in Huntsville, Alabama, says travellers who frequent the same cities again and again for work “tend to fall into a rut where they eat at the same restaurants every time they go … But for the new year make a resolution to avoid the same places you’ve always gone. It’ll make that 11th trip to Atlanta a little more fun.”

Gayle B. MacIntyre of Global Ink Communications says that “as a frequent business traveller who works in the hospitality industry, my resolution for 2016 is to cut out the peanuts, pretzels and Biscoff cookies. Empty calories add up for frequent business travellers. Arriving at a destination sans the salt and sugar has got to be a better and healthier way to arrive energized.”

DON’T RUSH CONNECTING FLIGHTS

It might seem counterintuitive to those who hate hanging around airports, but Pamela Wagner pledges to build in three to four hours between flights as a way to cut stress.

“Why? I can absolutely calmly go into one of the lounges and enjoy all their facilities, and have a good two to three hours of concentrated, uninterrupted work,” said Wagner, who has her own digital marketing business and is currently based in Austria. Even if you’re not a frequent flyer on a given airline, Wagner says it’s worth the extra for an airline lounge pass to access “showers, work stations, good food and drinks.” Then she calmly boards her next flight, watches a movie, gets some rest and is ready to work. “It’s an ideal rhythm,” she said.

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