According to a recent survey by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), businesses have been spending more on international business travel and allowing non-essential business travel.
The double-digit increase in business travel transactions indicates more and more employees engaging in domestic and international business travel after the pandemic.
But business travel often impacts the mental health of employees traveling for work adversely. Many corporate professionals experience stress, anxiety, and depression due to frequently traveling to various business travel destinations. Every work traveler can manage stress during, before, and after business trips by following some simple tips or best practices.
7 Ways Work Travelers can Manage Stress before Business Trips
1. Prepare an Elaborate Business Travel Itinerary
You have to visit multiple places and engage in various activities during the business trip. Hence, you should prepare a business travel itinerary to access important information like meeting schedules, flight times, hotel addresses, local transportation, and day-to-day activities.
2. Make a Travel Packing Checklist
You will experience stress when you do not find the necessary documents or accessories while traveling for work. You must make a destination-specific travel packing checklist to ensure that you can access clothing, toiletries, medication, safety items, and important documents instantly.
3. Book Tickets Early
Organizational travel policies these days make employees book flights, accommodations, cabs, and other business travel solutions early. Also, you can get your choice of seat and stay in a stress-free accommodation by booking business travel early.
4. Try to Reduce Flight Time
As highlighted by several studies, travelers experience negative emotions like tension when they spend time at altitudes. You can easily reduce stress and anxiety by spending less time at altitudes. That is why; it is always important to book direct flights instead of connecting flights while engaging in international business travel.
5. Recheck Your Digital Devices
Before the scheduled departure, you must not forget to charge your laptop, smartphone, tablet, and other digital devices. Also, you should ensure that electronic chargers and adapters are stored properly in your suitcase.
6. Stay Active and Hydrated
Many work travelers become dehydrated during air travel due to dry air and low humidity. You must keep yourself hydrated by drinking plenty of water before boarding. At the same time, you can stay active by sleeping adequately before boarding an early flight.
7. Prepare to Manage Air Travel Issues
Despite making business travel arrangements properly, you cannot rule out issues like flight delays, flight cancellations, and lost luggage. You can manage these unpredictable issues in air travel by getting real-time assistance.
Hence, you must install the necessary apps on your mobile device and note down the contact information of the person who will assist you in case of emergencies.
7 Ways Work Travelers Remain Stress-Free during Business Trips
8. Eat Stress-Relieving Foods
While exploring a city’s food culture, work travelers forget that certain foods increase stress and anxiety. You can remain stress-free during business trips only by avoiding stress-causing foods like fried snacks, fast foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, and caffeine. At the same time, you should consume stress-relieving foods like oatmeal, green leafy vegetables, walnuts, and dark chocolate.
9. Get Enough Sleep
You should remember that sleep deprivation and poor sleep affect your mood and make you experience stress. You can tackle a day’s stress efficiently during business trips only by getting adequate sleep. Like other business travelers, you might find it difficult to maintain a healthy sleep pattern while traveling. But you must try to sleep properly throughout the business trip.
10. Keep Your Body Hydrated
Some work travelers experience stress due to dehydration, while dehydration makes make business travelers experience stress. You can manage stress only by drinking water adequately and regularly while traveling.
However, you must not increase water intake by drinking alcoholic or sugary beverages. Instead, you should carry a water bottle and get it refilled throughout the business trip.
11. Practice Meditation
In addition to reducing stress, meditation produces a deep sense of relaxation. You should practice meditation to relax and refresh your mind while traveling for business purposes. However, you can relieve stress quickly only by focusing your attention and removing jumbled thoughts from your mind. At the same time, you should stay healthy by finding time to walk or run.
12. Connect with Friends and Family
Many people experience stress when they feel lonely. You cannot connect with your family and friends while traveling. But you can avoid social isolation by staying connected with them through instant chats and phone calls.
13. Keep Expense Receipts Organized
You will need expense receipts after the business trip to prepare and submit expense reports. You can reduce the time and effort required to prepare an expense report simply by keeping receipts organized during the business trip. You should use an efficient receipt management system that stores the receipts digitally by taking their picture and transferring it to cloud storage.
14. Take Advantage of Downtime
You have to focus on achieving predefined business travel goals throughout the work trip. Hence, you will experience stress regularly while traveling. You can stay relaxed after meetings by taking advantage of the downtime. You should use the downtime to relieve stress by enjoying dinner, relaxing by the pool, or exploring the city by walking.
3 Ways Work Travelers Relieve Stress after Business Trips
15. Submit Expense Reports Early
Most work travelers experience stress when there is a delay in travel expense reimbursements. You can get travel reimbursed quickly by submitting expense reports early. You must leverage the business travel management software implemented by your company to generate automated expense reports in less time simply by scanning expense receipts.
16. Rejuvenate and Reenergize Your Body
You must wait to go to the office after the business trip. It is always important to allow your body to recover by drinking plenty of water, eating stress-relieving foods, and adhering to your exercise routine. It is always advisable to work from home for several days before returning to your office.
17. Identify the Main Causes of Stress
The causes of stress vary from one business traveler to another. You can manage travel-related stress efficiently in the future only by identifying the specific causes of stress. The understanding will make you remember the measures taken by you to manage stress while planning business trips in the future.
Conclusions
Companies and startups these days protect work travelers’ mental health in various ways. In addition to keeping their travel policies flexible, they implement feature-rich business travel management software.
The software helps work travelers manage stress levels by providing multiple options, relevant information, and real-time support to employees. Employees must leverage travel management software to protect their mental health despite engaging in business travel regularly.
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