How to Maintain High Productivity When Travelling For Work

Travelling for work? Travel industry insider reveals how to maintain high productivity throughout your trip

A travel industry insider shares his own nine tactics for keeping productivity high while travelling for work – from planning and prioritisation skills to discipline and innovative technologies.

Tom Walley, Global Managing Director at Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre Travel Group’s flagship corporate travel management provider for small-to-medium businesses, oversees hundreds of Corporate Traveller employees around the world, across dozens of cities.

Tom is required to travel regularly between multiple cities every month, with Toronto, Perth, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, and New York already visited.

He says: “Being highly productive while travelling is particularly a challenge for business leaders who need to oversee and sign off on deliverables from their teams back home, join virtual meetings, approve budgets, and generally be available for their own managers or board, as well as urgent requests by their direct reports.

“Getting on impromptu calls, looking over important presentations and contracts are all part and parcel of the deliverables I need to meet while travelling.”

While remote-working technologies over the last two years have eased communication difficulties for people working remotely, working as productively when you are on the move remains a challenge for many who travel for work, particularly team leaders who are responsible for managing people remotely.

“The cost of slowing your usual productivity, however, is plenty of stress and late nights when you do return to HQ. Many travellers often return to a plethora of important deliverables and approvals as they play catch up on emails and deadlines. Some leaders also find that if their productivity slows, so does the team’s.

“Just because you’re travelling, your personal productivity and that of your team back at HQ should not slow down if you plan carefully and have the right technologies in place. There is also a way to avoid late nights working in your hotel room.”

Below, Tom Walley offers the 9 ways he maintains productivity when travelling for work.

Delegate before you travel.

Set realistic expectations to avoid burn-out or missed deadlines and talk openly with your team or managers about what you will and won’t be able to do while travelling. If you have a very tight business trip planned, you will not be able to complete the same workload that you would in the office. Delegate tasks to in-office team members to help maintain productivity in the workplace. If you’re travelling with a team, ensure each person has a balanced workload they can effectively manage.

Set up your digital communication and synchronise your files.

Tom ensures he has the best fit-for-purpose applications for communicating with his team while travelling, including mobile apps such as WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams. “Before travel, I recommend executives install messaging and virtual meeting apps used by their team on all devices – and synchronise documents and emails across them. You could store large files on Cloud drives such as Google Drive or Dropbox, which provide free capped storage. Just check beforehand if the available free space is adequate for all your files, whether you’ll need to upgrade, and if they support your devices and file types.”

Use your most productive time of day for desk work.

Tom says, if possible, dedicate one or two time slots per day – when you know you will be most productive – to desk-based work such as presentation updates, approvals, team meetings and any issues management back at HQ. Tom says: “The most productive travellers go beyond this and develop a realistic schedule of meetings, desk work, travel time and leisure activities before their trip to prevent them from taking on impromptu and unnecessary activities on their trip.”

Pre-book everything.

Tom recommends making advance bookings as much as possible. “Not only flights and transfers, but also transport to and from meetings, meals out, any required in-room hotel meals, any essential hotel dry cleaning, and any leisure activities.”

Be selective with your time.

Don’t let your travel schedule unravel. Try to avoid meetings running past their scheduled times. Consider using rideshare rather than car hire, so you can work during the drive. Try to have a consistent sleep routine so you won’t need to nap in transit and try to use transit waiting times and flights for work.

Fly early.

Book an early morning flight, and get a good night’s sleep beforehand, to ensure you have a full and productive day at your destination.

Use your hotel or mealtimes for meetings.

Tom recommends taking shortcuts and multitasking where possible. If you are staying at a four- or five-star city hotel, you could hold informal meetings for two or three in the lobby café. You could also gauge whether your stakeholders are open to meeting over lunch or dinner.

“Meeting this way can relieve your stress on a jam-packed work trip and lighten the meeting atmosphere. Clients and suppliers will understand that when you are travelling for business, you are trying to squeeze in as many meetings as you can, and they are more likely to accept a meeting over a meal, coffee or at a hotel.”

Get reliable Wi-Fi wherever you travel (2026 update)

Fast, reliable internet is now a non-negotiable for most travellers—whether you’re working remotely, navigating unfamiliar cities, or staying connected at home.

When booking flights and accommodation, check for high-speed Wi-Fi as a standard inclusion, not just “Wi-Fi available.” Many airlines now offer in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic and international routes, and hotels increasingly provide upgraded connections suitable for video calls and streaming.

If you’re heading to regional or remote areas, a portable Wi-Fi device or pocket modem can still be useful, but coverage varies. In Australia, mobile networks have improved significantly since 2019, so a strong mobile data plan is often enough—especially with 5G now common in regional centres.

For international travel, review your mobile plan carefully. Many providers now include international roaming packs or daily add-ons, while others limit speeds or data allowances. For longer stays, an eSIM or local SIM card is often the most reliable and cost-effective option, allowing you to access local networks without relying on public Wi-Fi.

Outsource your travel admin.

Knowing what you should do yourself, and what you can rely on others for, is an essential part of remaining productive while travelling for work. Tom says: “An increasing number of businesses are partnering with travel management companies in this complex travel environment. You don’t want to think about flight delays, pandemic restrictions, and check-in requirements on a work trip.”