On the Go « An Extra Hour Every Day

Dec

04

Use rooms in the lower floors of a hotel

by Nicolas

When you are traveling on business you are more concerned about time than a nice view from your hotel window. The higher your floor in the building the more time you will spend in the elevator. It therefore is a good idea to ask for a room on the lower floors because it will save you time each day when you leave from and return to the hotel. Depending on how many floors the building has you might even be able to use the stairs instead the elevator.

If you are using the hotel lounge make sure that your room is on the same floor as the lounge, so that you avoid using the elevator at all between your room and the lounge.

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Nov

30

2 rules on how to handle a suitcase on the escalator

by Nicolas

Have you ever thought on where to place you suitcase when using an escalator in airports or train stations? I found out that two basic rules make your life much easier on the escalator when you also have to hold your luggage.

1) Upward escalators

If you use an upward escalator you have to keep your luggage on the stair in front of you. It will be elevated making it easy for you to hold the luggage so that nothing can fall aside.

2) Downward escalators

If you use a downward escalator you have to keep your luggage on the stair behind you. Keeping the luggage on the stair in front forces you to bow forward in a very unnatural and uncomfortable position. Keeping everything behind you the luggage gets elevated and you stabilize it easily with your body or hands.

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Nov

05

don’t check out hotels at peak times

by Nicolas

Most people check out in hotel at specific times, which leads to peaks at the reception. Typical peak times at the reception are 12:00 (the final check-out time), as well 8:00 and 9:00 am. Try to avoid these times and your check-out will go much faster.

Another strategy to save time when checking out is to ask the reception to prepare your bill the evening before you leave. many business hotels offer this service and it is worth asking for it during check-in.

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Oct

14

Ensure your car has enough gas

by Nicolas

Did it ever happen to you that you quickly had to drive somewhere but first needed to go to the next gas-station because your tank was almost empty?

The best way to avoid such situations is to check the level in your tank on your way home or your base parking. In case it becomes close to a third only, you pass by a gas-station and fill it. This ensures that your car is always ready for an urgent ride.

This is also true for the regular maintenance of your car. Don’t wait until the last minute. It might happen that oil or tires are on their limits, so that you cannot use the car for a long trip. After you went to the maintenance workshop immediately schedule a reminder or pencil the next appointment into your calendar.

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Sep

26

Tips for long distance air-travel

by Nicolas

When you spend a lot of time in airplanes there are many ways to make your journey more pleasant:

1) When to go to toilet:
Try to go to the toilet before the service. Most people will go after the meals and you then have to queue.

2) How to open containers with fluid inside:
During the meal you receive coffee milk or dressing in closed small containers. Since the air pressure inside the container is higher than the pressure in the airplane, the liquid might spill out when opening the container. You therefore better open the side away from your body, so that it does not spoil your clothes.

3) Goods to bring on the plane:

The meaning of a pleasant journey is a little bit different for every person. There are a few things that might make your flight much easier, such as:

Earplugs
Earphones with noise reduction
Eye protection so that you can sleep
Eye drops for those having problems with dry eyes
A bottle of mineral water
An air pillow for your neck
A pen, so that you can take notes or fill in the immigration documents on the plane

I wonder what others are doing to make their flights more pleasant or more productive. Please share your ideas with me in the comment section.

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Sep

24

Waiting time is reading time

by Nicolas

Use “wait times” (i.e. in transit, waiting at the doctors, etc.) to catch up on reading (reports, homework, documents, etc.). I stopped having a daily newspaper and use the daily commuting time in the train to read the online edition with my iphone. This saves me about 30 minutes every day and I eliminated a major source of paper clutter at home.

Another option I sometimes use is to open all webpages I want to read on my laptop in the morning, so that whenever I have an idle space during the day, I can go through these to read sections. Although I personally am not a friend of paper, it also makes sence printing items to read to that they are at your hands anytime you might a slot for reading.

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Sep

14

Use airline lounges effectively

by Nicolas

Airlines offer their frequent travelers lounges, where they can relax, work and prepare for their trip. When used effectively these airline lounges can be very useful and make a big difference on your journey.

Set your mobile phone’s alarm clock early so that in any case you will be at the gate on time. You can relax and even sleep without fear to miss the plane
Charge all electronic devices you want to use in the plane
Before long flights, take a shower and you will feel very fresh
Don’t eat from all that free staff and drink alcohol free drinks
Go to the toilet just before leaving the lounge for the gate
If you use a public internet terminal make sure you logged out your sites
If possible take a bottle of water with you when you leave the lounge
Change clothes from business to comfortable

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Moving around in airports

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Sep

07

Print train schedule

by Nicolas

When you travel by train you will usually decide which train and what time in advance. I might be a good idea to print the schedule of the train company for that day and to carry it with your travel documents. In case you finish your appointments earlier or even later, you easily can check other options and make instant decisions.

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Sep

03

Have a virtual postal mail box

by Nicolas

I travel a lot and always had problems following up on the postal arriving home. As a result I missed a few payments or notices and it took me much more effort to get these things right afterwards.

With the Internet being everywhere I now found companies (e.g. private box) that provide a PO box as a service. For any incoming letter you will receive a notification by email. When you follow their link and log into their website you will be able to get more details such as the sender and size of the letter. At this stage the letter has not been opened so that you don’t receive information on its content.

You can then chose if you want them to open and scan the letter for you, forward it or throw it away.

Since I am using this service I never missed any mail again and I significantly improved my scanned document filing on my Internet server. This is the right thing for everyone who travels a lot.

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Aug

27

Moving around in airports

by Nicolas

As a global trend airports get larger and larger. New terminals are being added in all large cities and the buildings become larger and larger often extending over multiple floors for arrival, departure, restaurants, services, parking, train stations, etc. Getting from one place to another in these impressive building can consume a significant amount of time. You can optimize your travel time significantly by following a few very simple rules:

Inform yourself in advance which terminal your flight is leaving from. Going to the wrong terminal makes you loose a lot of time and can generate huge stress in case you are a bit short on time.
When you need to change up to one or two floors you better use the escalators. If it more than two floors it often is faster to take an elevator - especially when you carry a lot of luggage with you.
Always use the flat escalators since they help you to cover large distances in short time and please NEVER stop walking on these escalators or if you walk slowly stay at one side so that people who are faster than you can pass.

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