Welcome to the 25th edition of North Star Blueprints! In this weekly newsletter, we embark on a journey of personal and professional growth, offering observations, strategies, and inspiration to help you navigate life’s challenges and reach new heights of success. This edition will provide a summary of the daily insights I posted throughout the week, packed with valuable tips, thought-provoking ideas, and actionable advice on how to pack more efficiently, accumulate loyalty points, deal with jetlag, find peace in a noisy environment, and always dress well even during travels, in the hopes of helping you to unleash your better self.
August 5: Pack in Style
Travelling for work can be stressful… you often don’t have the luxury of time to plan your trip, you are still expected to be on top of your current work, while also having to prepare for the expected work at your destination. Taking care of the above, while also sorting out everything to have a successful business trip can be demanding. Packing is usually the last thing on our minds and is left to the very last minute.
Packing for a business trip efficiently ensures that you have everything you need without overpacking. Here are some key strategies to help you pack effectively:
1. Plan Your Outfits
- Choose Versatile Pieces: Select clothing items that can be mixed and matched to create multiple outfits. Stick to a color scheme to ensure everything coordinates well.
- Dress Code: Pack according to the dress code of your business meetings and events. Ensure you have at least one professional outfit for each day.
- Layering: Opt for layers to accommodate varying temperatures in different locations and settings.
2. Optimize Your Luggage
- Carry-On: If possible, fit everything into a carry-on to avoid checked luggage fees and save time at the airport.
- Packing Cubes: Use packing cubes to organize your items and maximize space. These help keep your clothing and accessories neatly separated.
3. Essential Items
- Toiletries: Pack travel-sized toiletries to comply with airline regulations and save space.
- Technology: Don’t forget chargers, adapters, and any other necessary tech accessories. A portable charger can be very useful.
- Documents: Carry important documents, such as itineraries, tickets, and business materials, in a dedicated folder or organizer.
4. Minimize Wrinkles
- Rolling Clothes: Roll your clothes instead of folding them to minimize wrinkles and save space.
- Garment Bag: For suits or delicate clothing, use a garment bag to keep them wrinkle-free.
Here’s a great video explaining how to pack a carry on for men. For the women reading this insight, please leave in the comments any tips or videos you found helpful in your packing.
August 6: How to Deal with Jetlag?
If you’ve ever travelled to a different time zone you may have experienced jet lag – a condition that occurs when your internal body clock is out of sync with the time zone of your destination, leading to disrupted sleep patterns and fatigue. Dealing with jetlag on top of the stresses of travel, work, and other situations when we’re away from home can really add up. Here’s some tips that I found very useful to reduce to effects of jetlag when travelling:
Adjust Clocks: As soon as you are seated on the plane, change all your clock faces (laptop, watch, and other devices) to the local time of your destination. This immediate adjustment helps you start thinking and operating on the new time zone, easing the transition and managing your trip more effectively.
Adjust Schedules: Adapt to your new time zone immediately by following the local schedule as closely as possible. Upon arrival, stay awake if it’s daytime and try to sleep if it’s night. This helps reset your body’s internal clock to the new time zone. Same thing with your meals, try to stick to the “standard” meal times at your destination as opposed to eating when hungry.
Stay Hydrated: Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and staying away from alcohol while you adjust. Planes are dry, and travelling is exhausting, so make sure to keep yourself well hydrated during the trip. At the same time, try to limit your alcohol intake to avoid impacting your sleep schedule.
Stay Active: When you wake up in your new time zone, it’s critical to get exposure to some daylight. Combine this with some exercise or walk for 20 minutes to allows your body to get adequate time in the sun. This activity will block melatonin production and make you feel more awake during the day, and ready to sleep at night.
Matthew Walker, a professor known for his sleep research, has some great insights on our sleep patterns, jetlag, and other neuroscience related topics. Check him out in Huberman’s podcast.
August 7: Don’t Forget Loyalty Points
Whether you’re travelling for business or pleasure, you’re likely going to need at least one of the following: flights, trains, hotels, car rentals, and food. Many vendors for these services have established loyalty programs to ensure travelers select and stay with them for future trips. These loyalty programs offer rewards in a form of cash-backs, free flights, hotel nights, free upgrades, and complementary meals.
To make the most of every trip, it’s useful to preemptively sign up for multiple loyalty programs, that way you maximize your benefits and always have a way to collect points regardless of which service or vendor you use. It might not seem like much at the beginning but really adds up over the years.
Here is a list of some vendors I recommend signing up to as early as possible:
Hotels:
Car Rentals:
Flights:
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- Delta SkyMiles
- United MileagePlus
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- WestJet Rewards
- VIPorter Airlines
I also highly recommend creating a spreadsheet to capture all your reward programs, your status, expiration dates for your points, and your loyalty programs IDs for ease of reference when you do your bookings or mid-travel.
What are some of your favourite loyalty programs when travelling?
August 8: Fly Peacefully
All the planning is done, you’re all packed, and you finally got through all the airport gates and security. You sigh in relief as you settle in your plane seat and look around you, only to quickly realize that it’s going to be one long flight… the couple in front of you can’t stop talking, your neighbour is listening to their music so loudly you can hear it through their headphones, and the family behind you has two crying toddlers. Combine all of that noise with the loud hum of the plane engine, and you’re guaranteed to have a very mentally taxing flight. How can you prevent that?
Invest in good and comfortable headphones with active noise cancelling. There is a variety of types – you can get the large over-ear ones (I use the Sony WH-1000XM5) or the small ear buds (I use the AirPods Pro 2), whatever best fits your needs. Even if you’re not planning to listen to anything, turning on the noise cancellation feature in these headphones can be a real game-changer during flights. This will allow you to turn the chaotic environment of an airplane into a personal space of calm. Whether you’re trying to catch some sleep, watch a movie, or simply enjoy your own thoughts, having the ability to significantly reduce the noise around you at any moment no longer gives you the control to make any flight more peaceful and enjoyable.
Check this video out on how active noise cancellation works.
August 9: Make Wrinkles Disappear
Travelling is never an excuse to look sloppy. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully you pack, what materials your clothes are made up of, or how quickly you hang them after arriving at the hotel, your clothes will still have some wrinkles and won’t look fresh and crisp. Travelling for business often requires making lasting first impressions on your clients, while travelling on a vacation will leave you with many photos. Both scenarios will benefit from nice clean and wrinkle free clothes.
Carrying an iron or a steamer is highly impractical. The next best thing is to use the hotel’s iron, but these are sometimes unavailable or costly. Using laundry and press services is easy but is also costly and requires time. So, what do you do to quickly freshen up your clothes? Try a wrinkle releaser.
I’ve recently discovered a product called Downy Wrinkle Releaser. It’s a spray that smooths out wrinkles and offers the added benefits of odor control and static reduction. Just a few sprays on your clothes, a quick smooth with your hands, and the fabric is refreshed and ready to wear, giving you a crisp and presentable look. As you can imagine, it’s no substitute for a hot iron but it’s better than wearing wrinkly clothes that have been packed away. The product is small, travel friendly, and cheap, I certainly found it to be a convenient tool when travelling.
Thank you for joining me on this journey of growth and discovery. I hope these insights illuminate your path forward as you pursue your aspirations with purpose and determination. See you in next week’s edition!
