Traveling for work over the past year with my trusty side kick, my crappy hunk of junk windows 7 state of the art business computer, I’ve had the pleasure of learning a few things I’d like share. I’ve also boiled them down to some really easy to remember, safe to use, and viral worthy business acronyms. 1. BLPM - Battery life / power management. Always leave home fully charged, computer in sleep mode, and dim the screen to lowest setting. Listen to the thing to verify it’s off... I’ve had the pleasure of not once but twice opening up my bag to a hot as balls laptop (yeah like +6000 degrees) in my bag being surprised it hasn’t burnt a hole through my bag altogether and computer found dead upon powering. 2. IOT - Internet of things. Hotel, airport, and public WiFi connections. The art of getting logged into free zones can be cumbersome at best. One hack I’ve found to continue to be surprised with and no clue as to why or how it works so well. When you've just connected to a network, you know there will be some sort of “authentication process”. Simply type in cnn.com in your browser. 100% of the time it’s worked to navigate me to the authentication page. I know what you are thinking, what about Google.com or other domains... I poop you not they don’t work, at least not nearly as well as the gregarious and trump labeled fake news site cnn.com... Maybe it’s Russia’s way of “helping” us connect when we are out on our travels... or maybe it's Maybelline... I’ll let you decide. Disclaimer: I can’t stand the news anymore. The concept of news is awesome. The challenge of news is not. Challenge, responsibility and accountability of interpreting the quality of the source alone just plain sucks these days. 3. SSCOJ - Suits, sport coat or jackets. Always don your jacket or sports coat you plan to wear for the flight and dress shoes. Saves space in your carry on, you look fly, and you can get those hush puppies of yours professionally polished for a whopping $5-10... Always worth it. 4. BPB - Battery packs baby. Make sure to get at least a 10mAh battery with multiple usbs for your travel. This battery alone is all you need for you iPad, iPhone, and smart watch to survive 2-3 days of travel and heavy electronic use. Laptop is another story... Obviously have that baby charged and ready to rock upon departure. 5. PAAOTR - Podcasts and Audio-books on the ready. You’re bound to pass some time in a lonely, yet surrounded by mass chaotic state of airport travel. Why not indulge in a podcast like JoeRogan to stimulate the brain a bit and learn something. Or better yet, for those self leadership management book snobs get some audio books on deck for your travels. You can brag with the rest of them that you read the book but on company time and not having to sacrifice your bourbon and sports time... Or in my case red wine and TV documentary time... 6. TAAFD - There’s an App for dat. *Waze - tied into an apple car play is like driving on a Serta or sleep number cloud-like bed of information. Police, pot holes ahead, and smart re-directing for traffic, and speed checking are good enough reasons alone to use it. *Apple maps - navigating subway or public mass transit is insanely easy with apple maps. I’ve zipped through all over Japan and continue to be amazed recently on a trip to Seattle as to how how easy it makes it. *Password manager app - one that keeps all accounts pass-codes on the ready for when you are out and about and forgot a pass-code. I've been locked out of accounts so many times because I forgot a pass-code at very inconvenient times when traveling. *Yelp - always do yourself justice and explore. Eating or seeing something new is a solid way to keep an open mind. Something all of America is struggling with these days. Why not have an app that lets you carefully select a solid spot (rated by actual people) and you get to try or eat something new? *Insert favorite or work forced Cloud app here - The cloud of things and apps that can tie you back to all your home base information once perceived to only be stored on your mega computer in your parents basement and backed up on floppy’s. These days you should be able to do both, access home and work files for maximum productivity on the go. *Food app - diet is critical in travel. There is sound science that the simple act alone of just logging what you eat and drink in an app will lead to losing or help in managing weight. With or without your choice of fad diet. Try it. 7. NTAF - Never trust a fart. But if you must be that musty lad on a plane be sure to time it well... “Better out than in...” Had to sneak that one in here... 8. TSAP - TSA precheck. If you’re okay with big brother knowing you had a few speeding tickets and happened to get caught doing the right thing at the right place but at the wrong time just get the thing. It’s worth it. 9. AEAA - Airport Early Arrivals Anonymous. Always be consistent to your target for airport arrival. Get to the airport on time while budgeting for hiccups along the way (traffic, lines, lost items, weather, etc...). Not budgeting enough time will guarantee you miss your flight if one or two of these hiccups line up. I target arriving at airport 45-60 min before scheduled airplane boarding. 10. DBAD - Don’t be a dick. You get in a bind or get screwed over by a hotel, airline, driver, etc... Don’t be a dick. Share all the feedback you must but be calm and collected on delivery and be sure to ask for compensation in points. I've banked about 50k points alone doing this. If you come across wrong (insert being a dick here...), prepare to get back a reciprocal attitude along with the minimal compensation that comes with it. Nuff said. And there it is folks. A short, sweet and straight to the point travel recommendations article to consider for ensuring a smooth yet moderately enjoyable trip in your future. Be woke with you! Now you are ready to navigate your travels at the least marginally better now that you spent way too much time reading this... Just be glad I only shared ten of many... for now...
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