Industry Insights: Hello from LAX! + some Saturday morning airport productivity tips
Also: A 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions!
Good morning!
Hello from Terminal 3 at LAX, where I have my go-to Starbucks airport order and I came to the airport way too early (i.e. 6:30 am for a 9 am flight…I have issues.)
Speaking of Starbucks, if you are like me, you can’t survive morning flights without that jolt of caffeine — but for those of us who travel frequently, you may have noticed that one thing that all airports in all cities have in common is the Starbucks line is always impossibly long.
There's a better way!
Next time your in the airport, any airport anywhere, pre-order your drink/breakfast/whatever on the app. You can even do it while in you are exiting that TSA security area. The drink will be made while you are walking to gather it. Then you get to skip ahead of the line and just pick up your order. You're done in 5 minutes instead of 50 minutes.
Caveat: Many larger airports have multiple Starbucks, even within a specific terminal, so make sure you are ordering from the right one, and that that one accepts mobile orders. (Don't worry, the vast majority do!)
Then, you are golden.
For the record, this isn’t just a Starbucks thing. It’ll work at ANY restaurant/cafe that has an app with a mobile ordering option that is available at locations that include that airport location. So you can skip that long Shake Shack line as well…
How is this a productivity tip? Why am I chatting about it here in this newsletter? Well, you've just saved an hour. Go use it to make a phone call or send some emails.
Speaking of airport productivity, my friends always laugh that I get to the airport HOURS before my flight. But there’s a reason that I do this …other than my own anxiety and neuroses.
You may be thinking….why on earth would you do that, AND ON PURPOSE? (Especially as someone who never checks a bag, and has TSA pre check…)
Well, for a few reasons. I actually love the idea of getting to the airport early, settling in, getting my coffee, and then having nothing to stress about as I focus on getting some work done uninterrupted until it’s time to board my flight.
You may not feel the same as me. In fact, you perhaps like to push it until the last possible moment. But chances are, at some point you’ll have a delay or a layover and end up hanging out at the airport on your computer as well. Here’s how to make the most of it:
1 - Get on top of your inbox. The way my morning emails tend to go, I take a quick coffee break and come back to a mailbox implosion. I average 800 emails a day, and hanging around the airport pre-flight is a great time to get a hold on morning emails and also send out my morning newsletter (waves!).
Whatever your day looks like, use that unexpected downtime to get on top of your emails for the day, and remember my tips for working offline while traveling.
If you can prep Google Docs and email apps to have all your email downloaded and pending docs set to work offline mode - you can still get things done even when technology and scheduling is working against you.
2. Make some quick phone calls. Take this opportunity to push back or reschedule anything you have pending that may be impacted by your schedule change if you have them, or to arrange your schedule for when you have your beloved beautiful on-time arrival.
3. Set a timer. This is SO important. Working in airports can feel as a kind of time vacuum. Almost like working in a casino cafe (which, I've done too...)...you don't want to get so in the zone with work that you lose track of time and miss your flight! Pomodoro is great for this. Tell yourself you do 60 min serious work, and then you can go for a little walk.
4. Do a brain dump. I don't know about you but my mind races when things are in any way outside of my comfort zone. Use that race. Jot down new project or story angles, they may be the nuts and bolts of your next great project!
5. Inventory the things you are currently working on. Do this for whatever you are working on. The most important part of doing what you need to do is to start by figuring out what has been done and what has not!
Do the mindless things you’ve been meaning to do. Like deleting all those excess photos from your phone. Do I really need 8 photos of a single dish from last night’s dinner? Probably not.
7. Find yourself some fun airport freebies. Recently, I wrote a story for Her Money about all sorts of free things (and experiences) you can get while at an airport. Getting to the airport early or having layover or a flight delay is the perfect time to do some exploring, walk off those airport snacks, and see what your airport has to offer.
On occasion, people reach out to me for help with planning press dinners and events and even press trips - from choosing the perfect location to keeping things fun and interesting to how to get top journalists to want to attend. If you are interested in me doing this for you, email me any time at alywalansky@gmail.com.
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In exciting news, I’m doing something I’ve never done before: I’m currently offering 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions. Times are really tough and I am hoping to make these insights as accessible as possible to any of you who are interested. If you want to schedule a session for yourself or your team, to discuss anything from pitching to followups to events or press trips or anything else…drop me an email at alywalansky@gmail.com and lets chat!
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