How We Optimize Our Travel For Maximum Output

0:00Alright, so we're going to talk about how we optimize our travel for maximum output. So in the last episode, we talked about the favorite marketing hack when speaking at conferences. That one's a doozy. Check it out. But because conferences and travel relate, we want to share our best hacks. So go for it. I don't have too many hacks. Eric and I have traveled together. We were going to Dubai. He busts open this app and he's like, Neil, here's this jet lag calculator and I'm going to sleep at this time and I'm going to get no jet lag. And I think he follows it and he does quite well with not having jet lag.

0:33I just stay on Pacific Standard Time. So my model is when I travel, I travel for the shortest amount of days, pack in my meetings. So for example, I'm going to Germany. I'm going to leave tomorrow night, so Tuesday night. I'll get there Wednesday night, their time. I speak Thursday. Friday morning, their time, I'm going to bounce. And then I'll end up being back in the United States or home Friday night. And I say I'm PST. And what I'll do is I'll take naps throughout the day. So I'll sleep during whatever I can during PST. And during their hours, I'll speak and I'll take naps. And what ends up happening is I don't actually get eight hours of full sleep or even six or four.

1:19It just tends to be a lot of naps, like one, two hours here, one, two hours there, and it ends up adding up because I'm working in essence, both time zones. Yeah, so I'll share the other perspective of the Dubai story here. So we're flying and we're sitting close to each other. So I was like, Neil, try out this app. It's called Time Shifter. And I haven't had heavy jet lag really in the last couple of years or so, maybe call it four or five years. And so when we got to Dubai, I knew Neil was not gonna do it. I knew I would mention it and Neil would just be like, whatever. And so we get to Dubai and I would notice that Neil was taking a lot of naps.

1:53And so I would still wake up at 6 or 7 a.m. in Dubai time. I'd go to the gym and all that. And then Neil would probably sleep for a couple hours. Like we're talking till you probably sleep like into the day, right? Like, you know, till like 11 or 12 or what? I was like, man, there's a lot of naps. And so I totally get where Neil's coming from. He just stays on PST or the original time zone and he just flies back, right? And he's still the same time zone. For me, I was like, you know what? I'm going to adjust to it. And then so I maybe had to nap one hour a day. I do remember Neil and I just going back to the hotel and say, we need a nap right now.

2:27I nap for an hour and I'm good, right? So that's the beauty of using something like a time shifter app. And then you could use something like a melatonin or whatever to help you fall asleep. But the other hack too is to not eat on the plane because usually it's really bad if you drink on the plane. It's also, it's kind of bad if you eat on the plane too because it just sits in your stomach. And the other hack I'll give you too, I'm flying today. I was telling Neil in a couple hours is that when you're sitting in like a 16 hour flight, blood flow starts to screw up. Like you become really constricted, right?

2:56Because you're just like sitting there the whole time. And so the hack I learned is that I was reading this on this blog a couple of years ago. It's like, no, you should do a ton of squats. So I do a leg workout before I leave. And so I did a leg workout earlier this morning already. And I just feel a lot better, right? So that's another hack. Well, since Neil is frozen, I'm going to keep going. So another hack that I have is, well, both of us don't really drink alcohol. That's another thing. And I would say there is a silk sleep mask that I use. Sorry, Neil, I just kept going because you froze for a little bit.

3:31So there's a silk sleep mask I use called Slip. That's amazing. And you can just buy it on Amazon. And then, oh, the other hack I'll throw in here too. So I think Neil saw me using this. I have sleep tape. It's like an X that I put over my mouth. Yeah, dude, I saw that. I'm like, you're sleeping because I was peeking over your cubicle. like dude i'm like what's on his mouth what is he wearing yeah dude the other thing i do is i work out when i travel i typically take a trx with me so the trx i don't know how to spell t-r-e-x the cables the cables yeah because you just hang on the door of the hotel room so i can work out and then i also take resistance bands with me they're really light easy to pack within my suitcase.

4:11Those two things help out. And I also try to keep my outfits really simple, white t-shirts, gray pants, and a jacket, and that's it. And I'll wear the same gray pants. Like I'll have more. And we only pack carry-ons. That's the same for both of us. Only pack carry-ons. I don't ever want to check in my luggage, zip through the airport pretty quickly. And if I ever have long layovers, like I'm leaving to Germany tomorrow night, I come back Friday. But when I come back Friday, I think I have a layover in Heathrow for like six hours. So I'll go to the Sofitel Hotel in London, Heathrow, close to Terminal 5, where I'll be departing.

4:50And then from there, I'll go and take a nap for two, three hours at Sofitel. And then I'll head back into the airport. So then that way I'm more fresh. Yeah. Look, to wrap this one up, if you're US-based, I mean, these seem like par for the course, but it seems like a lot of people still don't have this. Get TSA pre-checked, pre-checked, get clear, but more so just get global entry. So you get pre-checked at the same time. Cause like yesterday I came back from international travel. I just waltzed right through. And so if you do that, you're going to save a lot of time. If you do carry on, you're going to save a lot of time because sometimes you can risk your bags getting lost.

5:24Or if you land in an airport like Miami, it takes forever to get your checked bags. Don't do it unless you absolutely need to. And so even when I was traveling a couple of weeks ago, when I was in Europe. I was gone for 15, 16 days or so and I just had to carry on. And the worst case scenario was I had to do some laundry and usually you can just go to Google Maps and find someone that will come and pick up your laundry. I just use a hotel laundry service, which is a rip off. I don't care. Well, you like getting ripped off. I don't. I'm cheap. So it's like$50 to do the whole thing instead of$50 per shirt.

5:56You know what I'm saying? It's never that bad. And depending on the country you're in, they may charge you like five bucks a shirt. Oh my God, that's still expensive. Anyway, so the final thing too is you don't need to download any jet lag app or anything like that. But if you're gonna land in like a Dubai or in Australia, the main thing is you just need to make sure you fall asleep in their time zone. So if it's 7 a.m. and you're landing, you're kind of shit out of luck. You need to power through the whole day and then sleep at 9, 8, 9, 10 p.m. or so. And if you're having trouble adjusting, just start to adjust a couple of days before and just try to sleep a little earlier.

6:32And that's all it is. So Time Shifter is the app if you want to check it out. But that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Let us know what you think. Let us know what you think about the changeup in the last two episodes as well. And what else you'd like to learn from us. So we will see you later.