We’re pretty frugal and therefore sometimes choose a cheaper flight with a 3-6 hour transit rather than a more expensive one. However, we don’t mind and and this doesn’t affect our productivity too badly. Why? We’re experts at getting work done in transit.
Here are our tips for how to maximize your transit time:
1. Fully charge your electronics.
Make sure you charge your computer and phone fully before you leave for the airport.
2. Buy a computer with a long battery life.
I have Mac Air which, even after a year of heavy use, still has a pretty great battery life. It also seems to charge super quickly – 20 minutes of juicing it will give me a decent period of use. You could also consider buying a spare battery for your computer if you want more battery life but don’t want to buy a new computer.
3. Have a universal adapter plug.
Goes without saying. You’ll need this to plug your device in if the country you’re transiting uses a different type of plug.
We share on of these between the two of us and that works out fine.
4. Plan work you won’t need internet for.
Rather than muck about with trying to find internet, we plan to do work that we won’t need internet for. This saves us time figuring out the internet and the frequent frustration of struggling with bad internet or being asked for our credit card after 30 mins and trying to fins a way around the time limit.
5. Don’t work on the plane.
We love to use our time in the air to fully relax, and never buy inflight wifi. We’d rather snooze (or try to), cuddle up, and watch movies. This means that when we arrive at a transit airport, we’re ready to work.
6. Don’t plan to work for 5 hours straight.
I like to plan one or two tasks. After this I give myself the rest of the time off to power walk around the terminal, people watch, buy a diet coke, or whatever.
7. Consider paying for the airline lounge.
If we have a 5 hour or more transit, we will strongly consider paying for use of the airline lounge. That way we get drinks, food, and reliable wifi. And, often a place to have a shower. We won’t pay if the fee is more than around $50 a person, but under that it can be good value because we save on money we would’ve spent on food and drinks and we’re more productive with the wifi. It means we don’t have to arrive at our destination only to deal with 50 emails in the first hour of your arrival. That alone is easily worth $50 to us! For shorter stopovers it is sometimes worth paying for a coffee if the cafe has a quiet, relaxed atmosphere where I can chill or work uninterrupted for a few hours.
8. Bring snacks.
If you bring snacks you’ll be well fueled for getting your work done. We always make sure we’re well caffeinated to power through whatever we need to get done.
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