It’s 5 am. in SF for a few days. Time to get after it.

after 12 years of travelling for work I’ve developed some simple rules to thrive and not suffer from these trips:

Keep to your regular sleep schedule- ie Bed by 8 when on west coast

Hardest part of your day first. Up early, workout. No excuses. Carpe diem

Stretch or yoga for 10 mins

Hydrate. 2 glasses of water morning and night

No caff after 9 am, decaf, juice or water for the endless “catchups”

Space every meeting with a 30 minute TT (travel time) block

Dont overstack the day. focus on few quantity higher quality meetings

Come with key questions to the people you’re reconnecting with

No alcohol. Pretend, if you need to, with a fizzy water and lime

Dinner early, like grandpa special at 6; skip the 7,8 pm round tables. Make an appearance if needed but never compromise sleep

Again. Never compromise your sleep

Hard pass on karaoke, and late evening events unless it’s your company and you’re a key culture builder. In those cases, own it, rock it. Know when you’re building memories with people you love vs following the ritual and will regret it

These aren’t easy. Most people make excuses for all of them. But if you follow them your stress level will be 10x lower and you’ll return home revived by travel not depleted.

When you’re doing this multiple times a year, that deficit will build up.

What are your hard earned lessons?