Don't write checks that future you has to pay for

It’s summer time and there’s lots of travel happening.

I’m hoping that you’re also getting out and about and visiting family, friends, or just seeing something new.

I’m also willing to bet that you still have projects going on in the background, meetings to attend, and all sorts of little tasks that crop up, right?

Well, you’re not alone!

Let’s take a look at a few ways we can help ourselves when traveling.

I’m writing this the day before I hit the road…

Tomorrow I’m on a 6:43 am flight and will be visiting family. I decided beforehand to write this email a week early and it turned out to be a good example of the email topic!

Instead of telling myself “I’ll just find the time” while visiting family, I put it in my calendar to get done ahead of time.

Too often I’ve told myself I can handle things while on the road only to find out I was thrown a curveball (no surprise, there’s always a few) or just didn’t have the time.

In the end, I realized that writing checks for my future self to pay wasn’t the right thing to do and future me wasn’t real happy once it become the “today me”.

So what can we do?

Recommended

Stop Writing Those Checks

The first, and most helpful thing, is to realize what we’re doing.

Once you’re aware that future you will have to pay for these tasks, projects, and meetings you’re postponing or arranging while on the road, you’ll start noticing opportunities to put a stop to it.

A few things I do:

• Monthly reminder to look ahead a month at my calendar and specifically look at travel dates. Are there any meetings I can cancel or hold earlier? Are there due dates I can get done ahead of time? Can I block out a half day upon my return so I don’t walk into meetings or due dates right away?

• The week before a longer trip I look ahead at my tasks in ClickUp and see if there’s anything I can do now while I have the time and energy. Even small things really add up.

• Look at the week I return. Is there anything I can do to make my return easier? (meetings, tasks, etc)

It’s not super complex, but can take some time to get used to doing.

I set reminders to review this type of stuff once per month and look ahead - if I didn’t have that I would probably forget and let it hit me at the last minute…not what I want.

So, if you’re traveling this summer and have upcoming trips, I hope that you can take some of these ideas and make your travels better and your return not as stressful!

One quick question 👋

I love hearing from readers, and I’m always happy to hear feedback from active subscribers. How am I doing with the Productivity Academy newsletter? Is there any content you’d like to see more or less of? Which parts of the newsletter (or articles, or podcast) do you enjoy the most?

Hit reply and say hello, happy to hear from you!

P.S. Looking for resources to improve your productivity? Check out the tools I use right here.