Business Travel Kills My Productivity

It's hard enough trying to run my business while working a full time job. Coming home at 5:30 after a stressful 9 hour day doesn't exactly put me in the perfect working mindset. That's tough, but I am beginning to discover that it's nothing compared to when I have to travel.

My job doesn't require a ton of travel, but like most corporate jobs these days I am working with people across the world and sometimes I have to work with them in person. In my first year of working out of college I have traveled about 10 times. Not a ton, but not insignificant either.

There are some good things about traveling - mainly that I get out of the office and that I can read whatever I want when I am on the plane. For whatever reason, I tend to come up with some of my best ideas when I am flying. Nonetheless, the bad things about business travel far outweighs the good.

When I travel, I generally spend all day working or eating with people from work, leaving no time at all to work on SportsLizard.com. When I do finally get back to my hotel, I am worn out. All that I have time for is checking my email. Nothing gets done except the bare minimum. And the trip totally messes up my week. The night before I leave I spend packing and the day after I am still getting adjusted to being back. Business travel completely kills my productivity.

This week took it to another level. I was supposed to return on Friday by noon and have the rest of the day off. Thanks to delays and cancellations, I didn't get home until 1 AM! Talk about wasted time. Today I hardly got anything done because I was catching up on sleep. It drives me nuts.

Working 45 hours and running a business on the side is one thing. Traveling across the country and trying to run a business on the side is another.