Habits. Would you agree that every person can be defined by their habits? I’d say so. I follow a strict schedule for an entrepreneur, as many founders are perhaps a bit more flexible or fluid on scheduling and planning. I learned this from high school. When I transferred to online school my junior year of high school, I felt an overwhelming amount of responsibility to perform on my own. Online school is easy in certain ways because you can put your laptop down at any point and have a snack or read a book. The downside is just that: you can put your laptop down and forget to open it back up for as long as you want.
I live by my habits and routine. When I’m traveling, I attempt to maintain my daily routine as much as possible.
Simple hacks I’ve started to make traveling easier:
If I can’t meditate for 20 minutes uninterrupted first thing in the morning, I’ll set a timer for 10-15 minutes
Recently, I’ve been dealing with severe anxiety, worse than I usually have. I found Radio Headspace on Spotify (founded by one of my favorite Radio Disney interviews, Andy Puddicombe) I play the short clips in the morning, when my anxiety is bad, or in the sauna
Getting in a sauna. I never used to sauna as often as I do. I love it. I go to Equinox and following almost every workout I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and listen to Headspace if I’m alone, or listen to my own thoughts.
Everything else I do in a day to stay organized:
I spend all day in touch with my virtual assistant Esha, whom I found on Fiverr (after months of VAs that weren’t working for me) – she is a life changer. I messaged her on Fiverr asking to do a Zoom with her to see if she would be a fit for me.
Esha sends out all of my calender invites, researches companies, gets their emails, and even finds hotels for me to pitch in cities I’m going to. She’s a lifechanger!
I use TaskRabbit to hire people to fix things in my apartment, and sometimes even clean. I hate waiting at airports for an Uber or Lyft, and I have this weird nightmare about being killed by an Uber driver, so I took it upon myself to find a driver in Austin to get me when I land. Eavian started as my cleaning guy in Austin, and now we’ve become friends and I send him my flights weeks in advance. This not only reduces time at the airport, but ensures you’re in safe hands!
If you’re ever wondering who is taking my photos when I’m traveling, it’s probably someone I’ve hired. I think people always think I’m with a guy and the answer is that would make my life a lot easier, but that’s not reality! I’ve either hired someone from TaskRabbit under the “assistant” tab to take my photos or I’m asking someone in the hotel to. I don’t hold back from asking what I want!
I pack everything I need in plastic bags (I reuse them too) and divide them up between what I’ll need in my purse and what I’ll need when I get to a hotel. My food is in one bag, my beauty items like perfume or lip gloss are zip-locked in another but readily available for when I need them.
I even put each of my chargers in plastic bags: there is nothing worse than a tangled bag of chargers! I’ve got so many more habits but I’m racking my brain trying to think of them while writing this so of course now I’m forgetting. Would you implement any of my routines into your daily schedule?