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A Few Things We’ve Done to Make Business Travel Easier

Regardless of how much I prepare, being away from Katie is always tough. At ten months old, it feels like she’s growing leaps and bounds each day.  When I accepted my new role, following 4.5 months of maternity leave, I knew that it would involve some travel but, my manager, who is also a mom, told me that she would do her best to work with me to manage the travel schedule and help me prioritize. Since returning to work on November 1st, I’ve traveled six times – two times to San Francisco, one time to Cincinnati and three times to Arkansas. Since taking my first business trip, back in November, Bo and I have learned quite a few things that help make the time away more manageable for all of us. It’s important to note that my travel isn’t just tough on me but it also puts a strain on Bo, as it requires more of him while I’m away since he is responsible for all of the tasks that we typically share each day.

Here are a few things we’ve done to make business travel easier for our family.

  • Realize it’s okay to ask for help. We are so lucky to have two sets of very supportive parents. When I was considering whether or not to accept this position, both sets of grandparents offered to help when I traveled. While we know it isn’t realistic for them to travel up from Savannah, Georgia every time I travel, we’ve enrolled their help for the two longer, four-day trips. Since I leave early on Monday and return after Katie goes to bed on Thursday, it’s very helpful to have them here to help Bo. It has also provided an opportunity for them to have special bonding time with Katie since they typically choose to keep her home from nanny share when they are here. For my shorter trips, which are typically two nights, we make sure that our nanny knows that I’m out of town as well as our close friends who live three blocks away. That way, if anything comes up for Bo, he has a local support system.

  • Stay in touch leveraging Facetime and a video monitor. The first trip, Bo and I struggled with the time change and found each other constantly missing the other when we called or tried to Facetime. Since that trip, we’ve talked in advance and scheduled a time to connect via video each day. Most trips, we Facetime at 7:30 AM EST when Katie is finishing her bottle and then again around 6:30 PM right before bath time. It can mean an early wake up depending on where I’m traveling but that quality time with her is worth it. I also “check in” on her each night before I go to bed using the Nest app on the phone that allows me to see her nursery since we have a Nest cam set up above her crib. A few readers have recommended sending videos back and forth as this helps avoid time zone complications and then children can watch the video over and over.
  • Preparing for the week can help minimize stress. It took three trips for me to realize that the easiest way for me to minimize my anxiety about Katie was to take matters into my own hands and prepare ahead. Instead of worrying whether Bo would remember to take her foods to nanny share, find her outfits, or figure out her breakfast food I now devote about an hour the day before I leave for travel preparing everything. I lay her outfits out in the nursery so he can easily grab them, I restock the diaper bag and the diaper drawers upstairs and downstairs, I check to make sure we have plenty of formula and Camilia (our teething lifesaver) and I prepare her meals for the week so we can easily take it to the nanny share at the beginning of the week instead of daily. Don’t get me wrong, Bo is a great partner and a supportive parent who could most likely do all of this on his own. But, why make him worry about it when it’s easy to plan ahead?

  • Stay busy and try to enjoy the alone time.  Many moms quickly recommended that the best thing I could do during business travel was to stay busy and focus on ME. At first, I didn’t know what they meant but then, the first evening in Arkansas that I finished work and realized I didn’t have any evening plans, I felt lonely. Instead of focusing on Katie and Bo, I made a quick list in my mind of all the things I rarely have time to do back home – manicure, working out, relaxing, going to dinner with friends. Now, before leaving for a business trip I review my schedule and anytime I have large gaps of time outside working hours, I try to take advantage of it by scheduling dinner with friends who live in that town, looking up local nail salons on Yelp and booking a manicure or having a good book or show on my iPad to enjoy. This week in Arkansas I spent one evening reading for two hours in bed while sipping wine and eating Whole Foods hot bar for dinner. It was wonderful to just relax by myself for a bit.  Since I don’t have the extra responsibility of getting Katie fed and ready for the day when I’m traveling I set my alarm for a nice, long workout session every morning. Sometimes I’ll try a local studio and others I’ll head down to the hotel gym for a run or strength session. It feels so nice to have this uninterrupted workout time and is truly a treat and privilege.
  • Ask for extra pictures. When I travel, I ask Bo and our nanny to send me extra pictures during the day since I know I’ll be missing Katie and these little surprises light up my day. My parents were so adorable when they came this week and sent me at least two or three pictures each day in addition to a few videos and Facetime dates. It seems silly but I promise it helps, especially when they show up unexpectedly.

Your turn: I’d appreciate any other tips or tricks for making time away from your child more manageable.

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Four Tips To Work More Effectively

four tips to work more effectively

A few readers have emailed me asking for tips on working from home. As many of you all know, since moving back to New York in July 2015, I work from home 80% of the time. I’m lucky that my company has a terrific office in a WeWork space near Union Square, but I tend to only work there once a week. Due to pregnancy discomfort, last week was the first time in ages that I’ve worked from home every day. Even though I had two very urgent work projects I needed to complete, I had a hard time focusing. Between Baby Girl Diamond’s upcoming arrival and the nesting instinct, my mind was racing constantly.

I leveraged these four steps to help work more effectively last week, even when I had a number of distractions. In no time I was able to make my way through my to-do list and immediately felt a weight lift off my chest. They can be used together or alone but I found that when used together, I was able to power through my to-do list and work far more efficiently. Whether you work from home or in an office, hopefully, you’ll find at least a few of these tips helpful and applicable.

TURN ON A TIMER

If I know I have a time limit, I find that I work more effectively during that time period. Last week I set a time for 60 minutes and focused on my primary task during that time. After each 60 minute block, I allowed myself a few minutes to check email, go to the bathroom or stretch. Some people prefer the Pomodoro Technique, which is a technique that trains your brain to focus by breaking the work into short, timed 25- minute intervals.  While this may work for certain projects, for the task I was working on last week, I found longer intervals to be more effective. I set my iPhone timer to 60 minutes and then, turned it over and worked until the buzzer rang.

GET RID OF EXCUSES

Before setting your timer, make sure to get rid of any excuses to take a break. If you’re like me, when I’m distracted I can easily find 10 other things that need to be done instead of the task at hand. Before setting my timer I refilled my water, grabbed a quick snack, and went to the bathroom.

CREATE A CALM SPACE

This can be easier said than done, especially if you work in an office setting, but try to bring some calm energy to your work environment. I opened my shades to allow natural light to shine through the windows, lit my favorite candle and turned on a chill playlist on Spotify. If you work in an office, bring calm to your work environment could mean putting on noise canceling headphones, taking a few deep breaths or even doing a few minutes of guided meditation before diving into the project.

TURN OFF DISTRACTIONS

Our computers and phones are wonderful tools but they can also be very distracting. Whether it’s the Outlook pop-up window that shows you when you get new mail, a gChat ping from a friend or an internal messaging system that allows co-workers to ping you throughout the day all of these can be very distracting when you’re trying to focus. Before starting my timer, I closed out of Google Chat, Microsoft Lync, and Microsoft Office so I wouldn’t be distracted by incoming messages or pings from co-workers or friends. Next, after setting my 60-minute alarm on my iPhone, I actually put my cell phone in my desk drawer. I personally found this tip to be so effective that I’ve found myself turning off my distractions for at least a few hours each day this week.

I would love to hear your tips for working more effectively, especially if you work from home like me.

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Meltdowns

You can tell that those of us training for a Fall marathon are hitting the wall. There are so many emotional posts out there where we are all trying to be happy and positive, just like Theodora’s latest post.

I’m emotional this week. I can attribute it to many factors some of which include, but are certainly not limited to the following:

  • WORK: I work in the fragrance industry. In case you didn’t know, it’s more than a bit driven by the holidays. Therefore, the next few weeks is crunch time when it comes to driving the business.
  • PERSONAL LIFE: I haven’t spent more than 2-3 hours of quality time with Bo in weeks. Between travel, our work schedules, and marathon training I feel like a horrible wife.
  • FOOD: My cravings have been all over the place. I have eaten very healthy this week until today. When you combine my time of the month, work stress, and an office full of Halloween candy you get a sugar induced headache and stomachache. It’s a good thing one day can’t ruin everything.
  • TRAINING: While I haven’t exceeded 32 miles in a single week, my body is still starting to feel exhausted. I woke up on Tuesday feeling a cold trying to take over my body. I’ve fought it off this week with water, vitamins, and sleep. But, I’m ready to focus on my need for speed and personal training as soon as the marathon is over. My personal training goal is one full, unassisted pull-up and my running goal is a 2:10 half and a 36:00 4 miler!

Now that I’m done venting, let me try focusing on the positive. Life isn’t all bad, in fact it’s pretty awesome.

  • I’m about to run my second marathon!
  • The weekend following the marathon one of my best friends is coming to visit!

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  • My friends chose a Halloween outfit for me so I’m not stressed about that! See below for a hint.

  • I’ve registered for my next half-marathon, during which I hope to PR!
  • This week I was able to line up the next 6 Marathons+Moderation guest posts!
  • This weekend is shaping up to be amazing!

In fact, just writing this post has helped me put the week’s stress into perspective. Sometimes you just have to put it all out there and focus on the positive.

 

Question: What is stressing you out right now? What is making you happy right now?

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