Business travel zen: rule #1

A colleague who has work in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Berekeley CA was my original inspiration for business travel zen. I sat him down and told him of my upcoming schedule where I would be splitting my time on each coast. “What advice can you give me Dan? You’re obviously good at this.”

He said the key to working in such an arrangement is to have your junk at both ends of the country. If you’re carrying only a magazine and a laptop on the plane (and not a roller bag) you are a happy traveler. And when you get there if you’ve got your clothes and your toaster and your tv etc, you won’t feel so bad about the time away.

I took this advice to heart and rented a DC apartment in a poker buddies house.

Last night I discovered everything he said was true. I slept in my own bed last with no fear that a drunken conventioneer had sex on my unwashed bedspread. I had a colleague come over and meet me at the house, and we sat in the dining room at the table. I ordered pizza. I sat in the living room while American Idol ws on and surfed the web.

I’m off to boston today but will return and sleep in the same bed, my bed, for two nights in a row and through the end of the week.

For me at least, everything is going to be fine.